After Dusk
by awriterscorned
Summary: A slightly AU fic in which Leah imprints on Alice and has to deal with the consequences/aftermath. Starts off in Bella's point of view, but the remainder of the story will be about Alice/Leah. This story is femslash so you've been warned.
1. A peculiar imprint

A/N: This is probably my first fanfiction in about…hmm…let's see…probably five years. I don't own anything Stephenie Meyer created, and I kind of doubt she'd want to be associated with this particular story anyway 

Carlisle was late for the meeting by about a half an hour, and Bella figured that, as a human, the wait would be unbearable. Now, her vampire body sat sweat less and poised in her father-in-law's office, her pale hand on Edward's, waiting for news she was told would "affect the entire family."

"You have to know what this is," Bella said to her silent husband, still visibly impressed with the bells that rang from her voice. "It's not about Renesmee is it? Is she in some kind of trouble? You'd tell me if…"

"It's not Nessie," Edward cut in before Bella could think the rest of her phrase.

Sighing at the butchering of her daughter's name, Bella leaned back in her chair like a human would and pouted lightly. "Well what then? Is Esme okay? Rosalie? Alice?"

From the way Edward stiffened at the mention of the last name, Bella inferred the answer. "Oh no," she said, "did something happen to Alice?"

"You could say that," Edward said gruffly, "but not what you're thinking."

"Edward, Alice is like a sister to me! If you know something, tell me!" Bella shrieked. Even without an accelerating heart rate, Bella still experienced real terror when she felt her loved ones were threatened. "I thought we agreed not to keep things from each other anymore."

This statement brought a guilty expression to Edward's face. "I'm sorry, Bells. It wasn't my idea. Carlisle wanted to be able to explain it to you himself, but it's hard to keep secrets around here. Bella, Alice and Jasper are getting a divorce."

Relief that Alice hadn't fallen to some freakish vampire flu mutation, combined with shock at the unexpected news overcame Bella. "But…Jasper is her soul mate!"

"I know," Edward said, "but apparently that bitch…"

"Edward!" Bella said. She had rarely ever heard her husband swear before, even in battle or at the height of climax he kept his speech mild and proper.

"I'm sorry," he winced, "I meant the original definition; I tend to get my vernacular mixed up sometimes."

"Female dog?" Bella guessed. "Leah? What does Leah have to do with this? Oh god...Jasper isn't sleeping with her is he? He wouldn't, she wouldn't…"

"You're right," Edward said, "but apparently _Alice _would."

At this point, the office door opened and in-came Carlisle. "Sounds like you got the conversation started without me," he said, though there was no humor in his voice.

"She insisted," Edward said, like a small child accusing a sibling of his own wrongdoing.

Carlisle nodded gravely and took a seat. "It is hard to keep secrets around here, which is why it's so unfortunate when they arise."

"Alice and Jasper love each other," Bella said, "and Leah…Leah's not a lesbian!"

"Leah may not be a lesbian," Carlisle agreed, "and your friend, Jacob isn't a pedophile."

"You mean to tell me that Leah imprinted on Alice?" Bella covered her mouth in shock. When she finally regained composure, she said, "I thought imprinting was about breeding. And lesbians can't breed, so how can they imprint. How can Leah imprint at all?"

"Unfortunately, none of us really knows," Carlisle said, "you two haven't lived with us for a while, so it has been less obvious to you but the connection between them is every bit as intense as Jacob's with Renesmee."

"I don't believe it," Edward huffed, leaning forward in his chair, "it doesn't work like that."

"Edward, please stay seated," Carlisle said, "this hasn't been easy for anyone, especially not for Leah. She had her heartbroken when her boyfriend imprinted on another girl. How do you think she feels doing that to Jasper, taking the woman he loves away from her and knowing she's the reason he's heartbroken?"

"Well it's not her fault though," Bella said softly, "werewolves can't control their imprinting."

"I'm not _blaming_ Leah," Edward said, "but Alice should know what this is doing to Jasper."

"She does," Carlisle said. "They're both going through very difficult times and they need our understanding right now. All of them."

When the meeting adjourned, Bella and Edward decided to talk privately in Edward's old room.

"Are you really homophobic?" Bella asked, a bit surprised that she missed such a central fact about her soul mate.

"Homosexuality," Edward said, "it wasn't done in my time."

"It was always done, people just didn't talk about it," Bella said.

"Even still," Edward said, "I'm just not very comfortable with the idea. If that's what people choose for themselves, that's fine, but I never expected it to hit so close to home."

"And I never expected to marry a vampire," Bella said, "I really don't mean to be overly harsh or anything but you can't really judge lesbians when you're a vampire whose one in a million human-vampire hybrid daughter is probably going to marry a werewolf."

Even though their recent encounter with the Voltouri had taught them that the werewolves weren't really werewolves, the label had stuck.

Edward sighed, and then looked at his feet, "I am sorry Bella. I just never expected my own sister, with a…"

"Please don't call her a dog," Bella said, "I thought we were over that."

"We were," Edward glowered, "until one imprinted on my sister."

"One imprinted on your daughter," Bella said, "the only difference here is that they're lesbians."

"You're not seriously telling me you approve of this?" Edward asked. "You're okay with Alice leaving her husband of over sixty years to be with a teenage girl?"

"I approve of what makes my best girlfriend happy," Bella said, "besides, this is probably hurting her a lot more than it's hurting us."

"Given the circumstances, I'd prefer you didn't call her your best girlfriend anymore," Edward said.

"Makes you jealous?" Bella laughed lightly.

He growled, like his old pre-married jealous self. "I'm probably being overly dramatic, but I look back on your friendship and she saw you naked before I did. You took showers together while your leg was in a cast…"

"It wasn't a big deal," Bella said, "she was just helping me…"

"Still," Edward said, "had I known I would not have allowed it, and you had countless 'slumber parties' with you when I was concerned about your safety."

"Right," Bella said, "meaning if she was going to move in on your girlfriend, she had plenty of opportunities to do it. But she _didn't_."

"She didn't because it was wrong," Edward said, "and so is this."

"I'm going to talk to Alice," Bella said, "you do what you're going to do and I'll let you know how it goes."

Bella knocked a few times on Alice's door before Jasper told her, "she's not here."

"Do you...know where I could find her?" Bella asked.

"Probably at La Push," Jasper said, "I don't know, that's not fair. She left earlier because she thought we needed some time apart to think about things. It hurts to wonder what 'thinking' might involve on her end."

"I'm so sorry Jazz," Bella said, sincerely. She remembered what it had felt like when Edward left her, and how many times she had wished she could die and only stayed alive knowing that the world was a bit brighter with him in it. "I know she didn't mean to hurt you," she added, as if it were any consolation.

"That's part of what hurts," Jasper said, "it's harder when there's no one to hate. I can't hate Alice, I never could, and Leah just seems like a confused teenage girl. I can't blame her for what she can't help, but that doesn't make it hurt any less."

Considering how easily Jasper could control the moods of those around him, Bella was impressed with how thoroughly defeated he seemed.

"I don't want to leave you, but I think I should call her," Bella said.

"I couldn't blame you," Jasper said, "it'd probably be nice for her to know she still has a friend like you."

Bella's heart broke a bit at how concerned he still seemed to be for Alice, even after Alice had so completely broken his heart. "I think I will," Bella said, "thanks."

Even though she knew Jasper would be able to hear her downstairs or upstairs, Bella made her call in the living room to at least put physical if not auditory distance between them before she dialed Alice's number.

"Bella?"

"Hi, Alice," Bella said. "Listen, Edward and Carlisle told me about what happened so I thought I'd give you a call and see if you're okay. If you need to talk, I can come find you."

"You're not mad at me?" Alice asked. "I understand if you are."

"Edward is Edward," she said, "but I'm not mad at you. Where are you?"

"I'm at the beach, just outside La Push," Alice said. "I'm supposed to see Leah when she gets off work. I'm going to give her my decision today."

"Really?" Bella asked. "Where have I been lately? I shouldn't be this oblivious."

"It's not you," Alice said, "you and Edward have been busy with parenting and your newborn sex drive."

"Just when Emmitt stops," Bella sighed. "Anyway, I'll be there in a few."

After informing Edward, Bella got into the "after car" she had driven to the Cullen mansion and slammed onto the road. As many times as she had questioned Edward's driving as a human, and told herself she would _never _push 80 on residential streets, as a vampire she found mortal speeds hard to tolerate. In a few minutes she was at the beach, where Alice was sitting with her knees to her chest in a black hoodie and rolled up jeans.

"Looks like I'm developing the telltale lesbian fashion deficiency, eh?" Alice attempted to joke. Bella offered a half smile and sat beside her. "No, actually I've just been pretty uninterested in clothes for the past few weeks. It used to be that I was a beautiful girl with a beautiful boyfriend/husband and we both looked gorgeous. I was living a dream. But then this happened, and everything has been so confusing."

"When did it happen?" Bella asked.

"When you were pregnant," Alice said, "and Leah went off on you about hurting Jacob."

"I remember that," Bella said, with a slight bitterness in her tone.

"Well we ushered her out of the house fairly quickly, our eyes met, and it was like nothing else existed. It was stupid and cheesy and amazing. One minute she's yelling at my poor, pregnant friend and the next minute she's a goddess to me and I'm in love with her," Alice said.

"So you are in love with her then," Bella said.

"Yeah," Alice said, "I've always been a pretty open person so the thought of being with a girl really doesn't bother me," she said, "but then there's Jasper, the man I've been with for longer than most couples mean when they say 'til death do us part,' and I panicked. Leah did too. We agreed that it couldn't happen, she didn't want to be a 'home wrecker' any more than I wanted to hurt Jasper."

"But it didn't work that way?" Bella guessed.

"Not exactly," Alice smiled awkwardly, and Bella guessed that if Alice could blush, she would be right now.

"What happened?" Bella asked.

"Nothing I'm proud of doing while I was still with Jasper," Alice sighed. "Anyway, we went back and forth trying to make something work and eventually Jasper just took me aside and told me he wanted a divorce. I tried pretty feebly to argue with him, but he told me that he didn't want me to stay if I had to work to love him more than someone else. I felt like shit, but I eventually accepted. That was a few days ago, and I haven't seen Leah in about a week, so today I told her I was going to let her know my decision. She's going to meet me here in about ten minutes."

Alice's expression was a mixture of panic and excitement. Bella smiled in response, thinking of what the werewolves always said, "it's hard to resist that kind of devotion."

"Jasper still cares about you," Bella said, "but I think eventually he'll be okay."

"I know," Alice sighed, "I mean, I thought I was 100% sure that I'd never want anyone but Jasper. But then I met Leah," Alice smiled, "she's an incredibly strong person considering what she's been through. She's basically been heartbroken and near-friendless for years and she still blames herself for her father's death. Imagine, transforming into the only female werewolf in Quilette history and instantly losing your father. I loved Jasper, but I'd always know what he was getting me for Christmas and I always knew when he was trying to surprise me. With Leah, it's almost like I get to experience a dose of humanity. She's going to be here in ten minutes, and I have no idea how she'll react to my news or how we'll work out being together if she accepts me. We can't exactly hang out in the Cullen house."

"You'll find a way to make it work," Bella said, "Edward and I didn't have an easy time of it, but we did it."

"You didn't have to break anyone's heart to be with him," Alice reminded her. "You think the family was stand-offish toward you, you have no idea what I have to face."

"Carlisle supports you," Bella offered, "and I do. I think the others will too if you give them some time."

"Emmitt sees me as 'one of the guys' now," Alice said, "which is plenty awkward. Rosalie put in her two cents before finding something else to fuss about, and Edward…"  
"Edward is very traditional," Bella said, "I've had to grow up quite a bit to make this work, and I think he has too."

"Undoubtedly," Alice said, "you've changed species, yet I'd say Edward has gone through more of a transformation than you have since you've been together."

Bella smiled, imagining the brooding boy in her science class who begged the guidance counselors to rearrange his schedule so he could see as little of her as possible.

"She'll probably be here pretty soon," Bella said, "you probably don't want me here for this, do you?"

"I don't exactly want to kick you off the beach when you drove down here just to see me," Alice said, "but yes some alone time would be nice."

Shortly after Bella took off, Alice found herself nearly knocked over with an embrace. "Leah," she smiled.

"Hey Alice," Leah smiled back with an eagerness that suggested the girl had not had reason to smile in a long time. After a quick peck on the lips, Leah remembered that her fate with Alice was not sealed and took a step back. "So," she tucked a piece of raven hair behind her ear, "you wanted to tell me something?"

"Let's walk," Alice suggested.

It was delightfully cliché, two lovers strolling on the beach together, even if they were rather unordinary lovers.

"First of all, I think I made my decision a while ago that whatever happened with Jasper, I wanted to be with you. I haven't been sure because I've been with Jasper so long, but a few days ago he told me he wants a divorce."

"I'm sorry," Leah said, "I never would have intentionally imprinted on someone who was already taken."

"I know," Alice said, "and he knows too. That was why he decided this would be the best thing. He knew that if he tried to stay with me, he would always be getting hurt. He would always be the third wheel in his own relationship, so he decided it would be best for us both to move on. I know it's going to be hard for all of us, but I want us to be together. Is that okay with you?"

Leah's grin felt strange on her unaccustomed face. "I'd kind of be a hypocrite to say no," she said. Alice stood on her tiptoes to kiss her girlfriend on the lips. There were likely going to be a million things to work through if this was going to work, but for the moment, the biggest obstacle was gone.


	2. Sexy jeans and first few kisses

A/N: This chapter is very dialogue-intensive, but I chose to do that in order to establish a bit of common ground between Leah and Alice to help root their relationship a bit better.

Knowing how awkward Leah felt in "ordinary" parts of town, Alice hadn't wanted to take her to the one restaurant in Forks. As much as Alice had tried to assure Leah that people in Forks were usually too wrapped up in themselves to care that other people were lesbians, Leah had argued that every tiny event was a news earthquake there. Bella's arrival had been every boy's dream come true just because they hadn't known her since kindergarten, and Bella's wedding to Edward had been catastrophic because "they're eighteen!" If an eighteen-year-old married couple was news around here, Leah didn't want to deal with the stares they would get.

They climbed into Alice's yellow porche, and as always, Alice floored it. When Leah didn't flinch, Alice was almost shocked-her girlfriend's calm reaction to the burning rubber surprised her, and Alice had lost all of her memories of a time when things could surprise her.

"I'm a frickin werewolf," Leah said, "I'm used to speed."

"It's easy for me to forget sometimes," Alice said honestly, "no offense."

"Why?" Leah asked. "Don't I stink?"

Alice inhaled a girly scent of vanilla lavender and giggled at how typically feminine it was. "Not at all," she said, "but if you want a new signature scent, we can pick it up at the mall."

"The mall?" Leah wrinkled her nose, "I'm a shape shifter. _I'm going to rip off every article of clothing I own the first time I wear it_."

Alice wore the smile that usually accompanied a human blush. "Well it's just as likely that I might rip off every article of clothing you own." Her tone hardened a bit, "when we're ready."

Leah, being the more human of the two, still had the capacity to blush. "First of all, if you were anyone but you that would have been exceptionally creepy," she laughed, "second…isn't Bella your life size Barbie?"

"Bella's no fun anymore," Alice smiled, "I mean I love her as a sister, but she's way too stubborn sometimes."

Leah sighed. "I used to be in love with her, remember?"

"No," Alice said, "is that why you…"

"Well, _I _didn't used to be in love with her," Leah corrected, "but Jake did, and do you think it was easy vicariously living that through his thoughts? At first it was like watching a bad porno starring my alpha, but after a while it was like _I _was the one who wanted to be with her. Jake turned me gay, dammit."

Though the comment stung a bit, Alice reminded herself that their budding romance wasn't as simple as other relationships she had been in. "I don't care if you ruin all the clothes we get," Alice smiled, "it's not like my family is on a fixed income."

The idea of wearing pretty clothes and dressing up made Leah's heart sting a bit. "I haven't really gone shopping since I was with Sam," Leah said, "when I realized there was no point in trying to impress him, and I didn't want anybody else, I just kind of gave up on being pretty."

"Well now you do have someone else," Alice said, "you deserve to be happy as much as anyone else."

"Did you ever have feelings for Bella?" Leah asked curiously.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," Leah said, "I just mean since you were around her all the time, and you guys had slumber parties and such. I mean, you did tell me you're pretty much bisexual right?"

"Pretty much," Alice said, "I think I've always leaned a bit towards women, even with Jazz in the picture. I can't say I never _thought _about it, but she works well with Edward. I love them both, but both of them have some growing up to do, I think."

Leah sighed, almost in relief. "So you don't think I'm a complete bitch for what I said?"

"Not a complete bitch," Alice said. "It was pretty bad timing, but it is sometimes easy for me to forget how young Bella is. We may both look like teenagers, but I'm about a hundred years older than her."

"And me," Leah reminded her.

"I think permanent heartbreak does something to age a person's soul," Alice mused, "aside from being a socially awkward kid, having a few clumsy accidents, and losing Edward a couple years ago, Bella's never really known what it's like to hurt."

"But didn't she almost kill herself?" Leah asked.

"Not on purpose," Alice recalled, "I was there. She tried jumping off a cliff to hear Edward's voice. I'm not saying that wasn't hard for her, that whole thing and I gave Edward a pretty lengthy speech about leaving his soul mate unattended, but she got Edward back and she had Jacob to keep her going while he was gone. She had Renesmee, which must have been incredibly physically painful, but emotional pain always trumps physical in my mind. Both her parents are still alive, and the first boy she ever really liked turned out to be her soul mate."

"That's why I resent her so much, I think," Leah said, "she had two perfect men in love with her, and I saw her constantly breaking Jake's heart and the poor guy just kept going back for more. I couldn't keep one guy in love with me then."

"That's why you're different, though," Alice said, "Bella and Edward look at each other like the worship the ground the other walks on. You look at me like I'm a frickin goddess, but there's something deeper there. I think people have the potential to love more when they've been hurt more. They can appreciate it more, and it's all the more special that way."

Leah smiled. "Sam wasn't half the romantic you are."

"I know," Alice smiled back.

"Did you ever get your heart broken?" Leah asked.

"I actually don't remember," Alice said, "I guess it's possible that when I was human I did. I spent my last few years in a mental institute, and 'died' there. I don't really remember anything from my human years."

"Wow," Leah said, "I'm…I'm sorry. That kind of makes my problems sound pretty pathetic."

"Sometimes when I'm having a bad day, my visions aren't very accurate because my mind gets clouded with sounds of someone screaming, or really faint memories of scissors and loud voices, and laughing. Jazz used to try to convince me to see a therapist, but I kind of doubt there are many who work with vampires. Maybe it's some latent PTSD, but I don't think I'd go even if there were."

"Scissors?" Leah repeated. "I remember in Sweeny Todd they tried to cut Johanna's hair when she was in the mental institute and sell it to wig makers," Leah reached over to finger her girlfriend's spiky hair, "do you think…?"

"Probably," Alice said, "I doubt in the early nineteen hundreds I would have just waltzed out to the barber and asked to have most of my hair lopped off."

"Yikes," Leah responded, "it won't grow back, will it?"

"No," Alice said, "I thought about getting extensions, for a while, but most of the time they end up looking pretty fake. Plus, I kind of like my short hair."

When they neared the end of a highway, Alice turned her signal on and they entered the city limits of Seattle. "Do you need to eat?" Alice asked.

"I wouldn't mind it," Leah responded.

"Right," Alice said, "I was finally getting used to the whole human, parenthetically shape shifter eating schedule with Bella, when she became a vampire and it stopped being important. You have a preference?"

"Won't it look weird if we go into a restaurant together and you don't even have water?" Leah asked.

"In our relationship, I think we should just drop the 'won't it look weird if…' questions," Alice smiled.

Leah agreed, and after stopping for lunch, they hit the mall and Alice danced with joy as she dragger her reluctant date through the door. "So, where do you like to shop?" Alice asked.

"When I actually used to come to the mall I'd usually go to Nordstrom rack or maybe JcPenny."

"It feels like an Express kind of day," Alice said, eyeing Leah's slightly torn jeans, "we're going to Express."

Once Leah felt completely too glamorous to recognize herself in the mirror, and the two of them received their complementary-with-purchase age-defying cream from Sephora, there came the question of what to do next.

"I really don't want to go back to my house," Alice said. "We really need to ask Carlisle about hooking us up with one of those fairy tale cottages like Edward and Bella's."

"Not sure a fairy tale cottage would really be my thing," Leah said, "is it really bad with your family?"

"No, no," Alice said, not wanting Leah to feel guilty, "Edward is Edward and Jasper, obviously is dealing in his own way."

"Edward's homophobic then?" Leah asked.

"Just old fashioned," Alice said, "he'll get over it."

"Well I can't bring you back to my place either," Leah said lamely, "I already gave my father a heart attack. Even with the truce, I don't think bringing a vampire home, especially a vampire who is coincidentally my _girlfriend _would be a good idea."

"One or both of us needs a new place," Alice suggested.

"I'm looking into an apartment," Leah said, "for when I start at University of Seattle in the fall, but until then things are just going to be a bit irritating."

"So, tell your mom you're staying over with the Cullens," Alice suggested, "she won't mind, you've done it before. She doesn't need to know you're with me, and she doesn't need to know that we're actually hanging out at a hotel in Seattle."

"A hotel?" Leah asked. "Are you sure about that?"

"Of course," Alice said, "I can cover it."

"No, I mean, are you sure about…" Leah hesitated.

"We don't have to do anything if you don't want to," Alice said, "obviously. But it would be nice to get to spend time with you without all this werewolf/vampire plus homophobia, plus my divorce chaos."

"Sure," Leah said.

When they got back in the car, Leah couldn't stop eyeing herself in the passenger side mirror. Her brown eyes were accented with a faint, amber glitter and her lips looked shiny and worth having someone kiss them. She adjusted her new green blouse to hide the laciest bra strap she had ever worn, and felt a pang of insecurity she usually kept well-guarded. She remembered the first while after Sam left her, when she would examine her naked body in front of a mirror and wonder if Emily's naked breasts were perkier than hers, if Emily's skin was softer, if Emily was better at making love. Leah had only had Sam a couple of times before Emily came into the picture, and it was impossible for Leah not to wonder if something about her had turned Sam off completely, too much for any preexisting love to compensate for.

"Thanks for the clothes," Leah said lamely.

"It wasn't entirely selfless," Alice said, "I like seeing my girlfriend look hot."

"I do look hot," Leah said reluctantly, taking another look in the mirror, "I haven't felt that way in a while."

"Well get used to it," Alice said. "Because you are hot."

When they arrived at the Hyatt, Alice explained that they had no luggage: only shopping bags. The bellhop groaned, and Alice whispered to Leah that he probably thought they were spoiled teenage girls with Daddy's plastic.

"Aren't we, though?" Leah asked. "I mean, technically."

When they reached the room, Leah noticed that Alice had reserved two beds, probably to avoid intimidating her. "Let's see what's on TV, shall we?" Alice laughed.

After a few minutes of channel flipping, they went through all the movie titles and took turns making fun of the available porno titles.

"I almost would rent some of these just to make fun of them," Alice said.

"I don't like porn," Leah said, "I don't like the idea that if only I were prettier, I'd be worth being treated like a whore."

"You don't need to be prettier," Alice said, "or to be treated like a whore."

"I sometimes forget how badly my self esteem was fucked up after Sam left me," Leah mused. She climbed onto Alice's bed, and Alice put her arm around Leah.

"You want to talk about it?" Alice asked.

"Not really," Leah said, "just…how do we know that what we have is different than what you had with Jasper or what I had with Sam?"

"Well isn't imprinting the end-all?" Alice asked. "It feels different for me anyway."

"And me too," Leah said, "but I thought I was feeling so much for Sam, and it turned out that neither of us were really the people we thought we were."

"He didn't imprint on you, though," Alice said, "but you imprinted on me. As much as it hurt you, and as much as it hurts Jasper, Sam was meant for Emily and you were meant for me. And someone out there was meant for Jasper too."

"So we deserve to be happy then?" Leah asked. "Even when we've made Jasper miserable?"

"I think from the way things were going, Jasper and I would have grown apart eventually," Alice said, "and so would you and Sam. Love isn't something you do to someone or take away from someone, it's something that is or isn't. You can try to force it or fight it, but…what I'm saying is, of course we deserve to be happy."

"I lost the person I thought was my soul mate," Leah said, "and I'm so happy…to be with you, but so scared that something will happen and you won't want to stay with me. I never thought I was really going to imprint on someone, and I'm kind of scared."

Her lip started to tremble, and Alice leaned in to kiss her. For a few moments, Alice did all the work: applying gentle touches of the lips and working towards small pecks, and eventually Leah started to catch up, their mouths awkwardly missing each others' rhythm until they slowly learned to move together. Alice never would have remembered to stop if Leah hadn't finally come up for air.

"It's cute seeing you do human things like that," Alice said.

"Like _breathe_?" Leah responded.

"I told you, I don't remember being human," Alice said, "and you're as close as I've ever been to someone resembling a human."

Leah leaned in for a second kiss, and this one was more synchronized than before and required a few more deep breaths afterward.

"It's weird, figuring out how fast a relationship should go with someone I barely know anything about, except for the little detail of us being soul mates," Leah said awkwardly.

"Well," Alice looked at her watch, "thankfully I'm immortal, and as long as you have a vampire around, you're really in no hurry either."


	3. Talking babies and emotional baggage

She wished they could have stayed in that hotel room forever, sharing kisses that were as desperate as they were uncertain and learning the ins and outs of the unexpected connection they shared, but eventually Alice had to take Leah home, leaving her to face the music with her bereaved mother. Alice had read in a book somewhere that Native Americans saw homosexuals as belonging to a "third sex," something different from male or female but still deserving love and respect. She wondered if the Quilettes shared these beliefs, or if Leah's imprint would send their age-old traditions into serious question.

It was maddening, knowing that her girl might get hurt and there was nothing Alice could do. Perhaps it was her karmic punishment for all the "stalker" jokes she used to make when Edward would watch Bella sleep. Sure, Alice had loved Jasper but not like _that_. Sure, she and Jasper were soul mates but they weren't _ridiculous _about it. Her love for Leah was growing slowly, but even now she felt a certain desperation and certainty she had never quite found with Jasper.

_I'm the object of her imprint_, Alice thought angrily, _I should have the right to visit her anytime I want. It's not like the other werewolves can hurt me now._ On the other hand, she knew that the general loosening of the "no Cullens on Quilette property" truce did not mean that vampires were free, much less safe, to come and go as they pleased. But they shouldn't have the right to hurt Leah. Alice recalled with bitterness the way she used to tease Edward for watching Bella from the trees at night, and wondered if she was becoming like him. If she was becoming the kind of uptight, overprotective lover she used to make fun of.

She returned to a less crowded home than she left behind. Edward and Bella had gone off somewhere, probably to "enjoy" their new cottage, and Alice found Rosalie alone on the couch with an already walking and talking two-year-old looking child. If Renesmee was here, Alice assumed the love birds hadn't "woken up" yet.

"Jasper's gone," Rosalie announced, "Carlisle left this morning to track him down. We're not sure where he went, but Carlisle's worried that he'll 'relapse.'"

Alice shuddered guiltily, remembering the countless hours she had spent reminding Jasper that they didn't have to be monsters: humans weren't food. He knew it, and he wanted to be as strong as the rest of the Cullens were, but he hadn't quite developed their mental strength.

"Okay," Alice breathed, pivoting to make her way to her bedroom, "I'm going to try to have a vision."

"Don't," Rosalie said, "let him go. Carlisle will catch up to him and make sure he's not in any trouble, but after that Jasper needs to figure things out for himself. You owe him that at least."

"I suppose so," Alice said, "but maybe if I can get a read on where he is I can tell Carlisle…"

"Sit," Rosalie ordered.

For the sake of defiance, Alice remained standing. "Where's everyone else?" she asked. "Esme, Emmitt?"

"Esme's at the grocery store buying human food for Renesmee, and Emmitt's…around," she said. "This one'll be reading before her first year," she announced proudly, as though Renesmee were her own child.

"Human food?" Alice asked. "Don't Edward and Bella usually hunt for her?"

"Yes, but Nessie doesn't _have _to drink blood. Bella wants her to be able to visit Renee and Charlie, and have human friends eventually without having to hide things about herself."

"Human food's yucky," Renesmee complained, "but Mommy says if I don't eat it I'll hurt Grandpa's feelings."

"Won't she have to hide the fact that she won't age after seven?" Alice asked.

"This is Bella we're talking about," Rosalie sighed.

"I won't have to hide cause Jakey says I'm gonna grow up pretty like Mommy and we're gonna have a big house and Auntie Alice will buy me all the pretty dresses I want and everyone will want to come over and play with us," Renesmee announced proudly.

Alice nodded, realizing it wasn't fair to make fun of Bella's Pollyanna parenting style in front of Bella's daughter, and took a seat next to Renesmee. "We're going to have so much fun when you're older," she said, "I'll take you shopping and you and Jacob and Leah and me can double date someday."

"Leah?" Renesmee asked. "Jakey's girl friend is your boyfriend? Girls can't be your boyfriend though."

Alice jumped for a moment, still not used to the ease at which the toddler could speak. "You don't have to explain this to her now," Rosalie said.

"Why not?" Alice asked. "It's a part of her life too."

"How can you go on a date with Leah?" Renesmee asked. "Jakey said he'll take me out someday cause he imprinted on me. Leah has to imprint on a boy."

"You know, a lot of us thought that," Alice said, "but when two girls love each other the way you and Jacob do, they can imprint too."

"Really?" Renesmee asked. "So how come I got a boy and you got a girl?"

"Don't think about it like that," Alice said, "you got a wonderful boy who's going to treat you like a princess, and I got a beautiful girl I really care about. They're different, but they're both wonderful people."

"Why is Daddy so mad at you then?" Renesmee asked.

"Ed…your daddy is upset because…he isn't quite used to the idea. He didn't like Jacob too much when they met," Alice said, sparing some details.

"But then he got to know Jakey and now Jakey and Daddy are friends," Renesmee said.

"Exactly!" Alice said brightly. "Your daddy loves you, and he didn't know if Jakey was right for you. I'm your daddy's sister, and he cares about me too. Right now, he isn't sure if Leah is the right person for me."

"Should I tell him to stop being a meanie head?" Renesmee asked.

Alice giggled. "No, I don't think that'll be necessary. He'll come around."

"I didn't know you liked kids," Rosalie smiled, "you and Leah should look into adoption."

As nice as it was to imagine dressing up a little girl and watching her grow up and threatening boys or girls not to break her heart and walking her down the aisle, Alice and Leah joked that they were going to beat Bella and Edward to college. Beyond that, Alice knew that Forks wasn't for Leah and hadn't been for a long time. College needed to happen before they could think about children.

"What's adoption?" Renesmee asked.

"Sometimes parents have kids, but they can't take care of them," Rosalie said, "so they find other parents who can't have babies, and they let those parents raise their kid."

"People who can't have babies?" Renesmee asked. "Why don't you have an adoption, Auntie Rosie?"

"Because I have you," Rosalie smiled, "you're the only baby I need."

"But I'm not a baby anymore," Renesmee said, "I'll be big soon and then you'll need your own baby."

Rosalie sighed. "It's complicated."

"It's complicated's always what grown-ups say when they don't wanna tell me things," Renesmee pouted.

"This kid is way too smart," Rosalie said.

"Do you think Jakey and I can have a baby?" Renesmee asked.

"That's something for you to decide when you're older," Rosalie said, "you can grow up fast, but not _that _fast, okay? You have to be big first, and then you'll get married, and then you and Jacob can decide together if you want to have babies."

"Will it hurt like I hurt mommy?" Renesmee asked.

Rosalie proceeded to explain, once again, how Bella's human body was weaker than Renesmee's half-vampire body, that Bella knew her pregnancy was going to be harder than most pregnancies, but wanted Renesmee so much that she chose to go through with it.

"Mommy thought I'd be a boy," Renesmee recalled, "if I were a boy would Jakey still have imprinted on me?"

Rosalie burst out laughing. "That would have made my life."

Alice recalled how disturbed she had been initially, finding out that Jacob had imprinted on Renesmee. She didn't blame him, naturally, but the thought had crossed her mind that Renesmee might feel pressured to be with Jacob to "pay him back" for all his love and devotion, but being the object of an imprint herself, Alice knew that it was more complicated than that. She barely knew Leah, but no one else had ever looked at her the same way and no one else had ever made her feel so…secure despite the insanity in her life.

"Jacob should be here pretty soon to take her to the park," Rosalie said, "then we can have a little chat, just us girls."

Rosalie and Alice had never quite had the sister-best-friend bond that Alice was developing with Bella, and historically most of their talk had been about what a dumb ape Emmitt could be, or whether Rosalie's new barrettes were "too much."

"Jakey!" Renesmee squealed.

"Hold on," Rosalie said, "he's not here yet."

"Do you think he's on an adventure?" Renesmee asked. "Is he gonna be a puppy this time?"

"No no," Rosalie said, "because if the other kiddies saw you at the park with a great big dog like that, they'd be way too jealous and their feelings would get hurt."

"Okay," Renesmee said, "I don't want to hurt anybody."

"She has to be the least self-absorbed toddler on the planet," Alice smiled.

A few minutes passed and the doorbell rang. Alice was always happy to see Jacob, and he was wearing his human-werewolf body much more gracefully than he used to. There was no awkwardness in the way he swept Renesmee up and swung her, before tossing her into a playful cuddle. He was in full control of his body: and even seemed confident enough to wear a shirt today.

"Have you seen Leah since I got her back?" Alice asked hopefully. "She's not in any kind of trouble is she?"

"What?" Jacob asked. "Leah, I don't think so. Her mom is naturally kind of…well she doesn't really get it, but mostly she's just glad her daughter's not miserable all the time like she used to be. And Seth totally won't admit it, but he's a bit jealous. I guess it's weird for a guy when his sister meets a gorgeous girl before he does."

Alice laughed. "I worry about her, y'know?"

"It never stops," Jacob said, "be glad your soul mate is post-pubescent."

"Jakey," Renesmee chirped. "Would you still love me if I were a boy?"

Jacob's expression stiffened for a moment. He wasn't exactly sure how to answer that question, but he glanced apologetically at Alice, almost hoping for some input.

"Cuz if Auntie Alice is a girl and Leah's a girl too then couldn't you love me if I was a boy?" Renesmee asked.

"Why not?" Jacob smiled uneasily. "We can talk about that kind of stuff when you're older though, okay?"

Alice couldn't help but feel a bit flustered watching them together. She had a feeling that Jacob would love Renesmee and only Renesmee forever, even if she stopped aging and was never able to be truly physically intimate with him. It was just the principle of being with her that made his life complete.

"I should call Leah," Alice said, when Jacob and Renesmee had departed.

"You're like a schoolgirl," Rosalie responded, "and no, you shouldn't. You should come over here and talk to me."

Alice might have looked forward and known what Rosalie meant to say if Jacob and Renesmee hadn't been clouding up her vision up until this moment. "Alright," Alice said.

"I suspected you were gay for a while, you know," Rosalie said.

"I'm not gay," Alice said.

"Bi then," Rosalie corrected.

"No," Alice said, "just Leah-sexual."

"Excuse me while I gag," Rosalie said, "anyway Carlisle said he'll call if and when he gets any word from Jasper. I think he's going to try to meet up with Tanya and her sisters, keep up the vegetarian thing but have some time away from the family to think about things."

Alice breathed a bit easier and saw Jasper hunting in a group of female vampires, taking down an elk. "He'll be okay," she said softly.

"The lovebirds couldn't be bothered to stick around too long," Rosalie said, "I hope Bella is actually having a _talk _with her thick-skulled husband about you and Leah."

"She said she was going to," Alice said.

"Yeah but what happens when Bella says she's going to question Edward?" Rosalie asked. "She's really pouty, she tells him 'you're in so much trouble, mister,' and before you know it I'm over there helping them fix half their furniture. She may not have the newborn bloodlust but she certainly gets that energy out in other ways."

"You're never going to give the girl a break are you?" Alice asked.

"Emmitt's not allowed to make fun of their sex life anymore," Rosalie giggled, "but that doesn't mean anything for me."

Esme returned with fourteen bags of groceries, and Alice was a bit taken aback. "Is Renesmee going to eat all that?" she asked.

"No. Renesmee and Jacob are having dinner with us. I figure if she sees him eating it she'll be more likely to try it herself," Esme explained. "You kids are so easy, I haven't felt this much like a mom in years."

"_Easy_?" Rosalie snorted. "Yeah…with our hum drum suicide attempts in Volterra and run-ins with dangerous vampire covens and superhuman pregnancies…"

"Well technically I've seen it all," Esme said, "pregnancy, suicide attempt, lesbianism…none of you have tried drugs yet."

"Nope, just had the occasional slip-up and killed people," Alice said. "Sorry, that's nothing to joke about."

"I understand," Esme said. "Do you think Renesmee and Jacob will like lasagna? I picked some makings up, but if that doesn't work I also got some chicken, and makings for a standing rib roast. Not sure what they'll prefer."

"Well just make one of those things, okay?" Alice asked. "Humans feel bad if they can't finish whatever the host makes."

"As long as we've got all this food, why don't you ask Leah if she wants to come over?" Esme asked. "I'd love to meet her, well, officially meet her. Without the apocalypse looming that is."

"I don't know if it's too soon to say this, but I've lost all personal respect for the Voltourri," Rosalie said, "if one person standing up to them is enough to send the entire crew packing, we need to rethink our government."

"Be _glad _they were cowards," Esme warned. "And be glad everyone made it out alive."

Alice was engaged in hitting Leah's speed dial, and content to ignore her adopted sister. "Hey, how's it going?" Alice asked.

"I hope you're calling to get me out of here," Leah said, "my mom's been freaking out on me ever since I got back."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked. "You're not in trouble, are you?"

"No, not in trouble per se," Leah said, "it's more like, 'aren't there any nice _boys _at your school, well of course I respect your choice, or your imprint, or whatever it is but I've really just never heard of a woman imprinting on another woman…I'm not sure it's normal…' I asked her, what does she want to do, send me to the imprinting doctor to make sure I'm functioning properly?"

"Esme's making dinner for Jacob and Renesmee. She said I could invite you," Alice said.

"You sure that won't be weird?" Leah asked. "I mean, no offense but has she ever cooked food before?"

"Oh yeah," Alice said, "it always _looks _delicious. And Bella always spoke pretty highly of it."

"Well, okay," Leah said, "any excuse to see you. Even if your mom _couldn't _cook I'd be there. Damn though it's only one thirty…can't be close to time for dinner."

"It's okay," Alice said, "the house is pretty empty."

"What does that mean?" Leah asked.

"Well, Edward and Bella are…off at their own place and Jasper decided to leave for a while this morning."

"Because of me?" Leah gasped. "Oh god, I'm sorry."

"Not because of you," Alice said, "he wants some time to think. I was pretty worried, but I saw him going to live with some friends of ours. They're vegetarian, like us, so they'll help him avoid doing anything he regrets."

"Well that's good at least," Leah said, "I guess. You sure your mom doesn't hate me for shaking up her family like this?"

"Esme doesn't _hate_," Alice said, "it's just not in her nature."

"So I can come over now?" Leah asked. "Because things are incredibly awkward right now."

"Absolutely," Leah said. "See you soon."

When Leah arrived, she and Alice embraced as though they hadn't seen each other in years. "I'm so glad to be here instead of at home," Leah said, "my mom keeps trying to find out if we had sex and it's driving me craz…" her cheeks went pink at the sight of Esme coming up behind Alice, extending a hand to shake. "Oh god…I'm sorry," Leah said. "I was just saying…nothing happened…I swear."

"You're both adults," Esme said, "I trust you to make good decisions. It's good to meet you, under better circumstances, Leah." Rosalie forced a smile in agreement.

Leah nodded and returned the pleasantry. "Thanks for letting me come over. I know it must be a pain cooking for us since you can't…"

"I love to cook," Esme said.

"You should have seen her in the 50's," Alice chirped, "she was the cutest 1950s housewife ever."

Esme shook her head. "Alice got into the beatnik trend back then. She wrote some excellent poetry. Why don't you write anymore, sweetie?"

"I dunno," Alice said, "poetry stopped being my scene after about the 60s. Most of the poetry slams I've gone to lately are full of pouty kids with no fashion sense."

"I'll try to remember what I was doing in the 50s," Leah said.

Esme excused herself to return to the kitchen, and Alice took Leah up to her room so they could be alone.

"I hope your mom isn't giving you too much of a hard time," Alice said.

"It's manageable," Leah responded, "without Dad around, she worries a lot more about us."

"Makes sense in a way," Alice said, "she already lost someone she cares about, and mothers are said to love their own kids even more than they love their spouses."

"I love all of you equally," Esme smiled. "Of course, I know what it's like to lose a child."

"Jasper?" Leah asked, with a guilty expression.

"No, no," she said, "I had a son before I met Carlisle. He didn't live too long after he was born."

"I'm so sorry," Leah said, "I…wow. That must have been awful."

"We seem like a perfect family of supermodels, but landing in our family isn't exactly the lottery win a lot of Bella's friends think it is," Alice explained.

"We can't really blame them for envying us though," Esme said, "not every family can buy their children endlessly nice wardrobes and top of the line cars.

"Right," Alice sighed, "but just about everyone in our family has gone through some majorly traumatic events, not the least of which is the turning process."

Leah shuddered. "Is being changed really that bad?"

"Bella's body was loaded with morphine when she was turned, and she still said it hurt more than anything else in the world," Alice said.

"Did she really say that?" Esme asked. "I don't have to tell you not to tell Edward about this do I?"

Alice shook her head. "I try not to think about it around him, but I told Bella that eventually she's going to have to come clean."

"Very true," Esme said, "I hope now that she's a vampire he can at least have some peace of mind when it comes to her."

Glancing over at Leah, Alice realized that Bella and Edward might not be the best topic of conversation. "Have you heard back from Carlisle at all?"

"Not yet," Esme said, "you haven't had a vision?"

"No, I suppose I did," Alice said, "it's strange, I'm worrying but I don't really know what about."

"I wouldn't know anything about that," Rosalie said sarcastically. "Maybe you still have triggers, like I do. Even if you can't remember what happened to you before you were a human."

"Triggers?" Leah asked. "What are those?"

"They're mostly a part of post traumatic stress disorder," Esme said, "if something reminds you of a traumatic experience in your life, it can make you feel similarly victimized and intimidated."

"Victimized and intimidated?" Rosalie asked. "You think honeymooning vampires ruin furniture, try a rape survivor on for size."

Everyone seemed a bit taken aback that Rosalie would mention it so candidly in front of someone who wasn't in the know. "Wow," Leah said, "I'm sorry…again."

"It was a long time ago," Rosalie said, "but you never completely get over things like that. Even if you kill every last dirty one of your abusers, you still have flashbacks and you still think someone's going to hurt you, and you still see your rapist during sex with the person you love."

"You haven't talked about this in a while, Rose," Esme said, obvious concern in her voice, "is everything alright?"

"Should I leave?" Leah asked.

"No, you should stay," Rosalie said, "I'm sorry if I'm freaking you out. I told Bella the same story, maybe a bit more tactfully, because I want new people in our family to understand that I'm not just a spoiled Barbie dating the quarterback. It takes work not to have massive breakdowns, even in a perfect vampire body. After doing it god knows how many times, you get a little sick of being the brooding hotties in high school."

"Maybe," Leah said, "I guess I could see that. I feel like a bit of an emo compared to all that, complaining about Sam so much."

"You can't compare sorrow," Esme said thoughtfully. "You've been through your own struggles, we all have. No one here is going to pass judgment on you for that."

A/N: This may not be the best ending of the chapter, but this chapter is a bit of a transition, establishing everyone's mood for a story that may span over several years. Let me know what you think so far 


	4. A minor plothole

A/N: This chapter is also very transitional, establishing where (location-wise) everyone is going in their lives before too much action comes on. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/alerted me.

"Well, Jacob should be back soon with Ness and then I asked Bella and Edward to come over later. I have some things to talk to them about," Esme said.

Alice got up from her place at the table and went to Esme's side, grabbing some vegetables to chop. Leah tried to follow, but Esme insisted that guests were guests. "About Ness?" Alice asked.

"No, about Dartmouth," Esme said.

"I have a feeling they won't be going for a while. Since Bella's been a vampire, my visions have been kind of confused about their college plans," Alice said.

"That's because it turns out Dartmouth doesn't have night courses."

In the background, Alice heard Leah suppress a laugh. "Oh snap," Alice said, "well there's always their safety school right?"

"I love your brother dearly, but sometimes I think his head's been on a little crooked," Esme shook her head, "I shouldn't say that. They'll make it work, they always do."

"Well, he's in love," Leah was surprised to find herself defending Edward, "I can't really judge someone for being an id…, I mean making bad decisions when they're in love. My first love made a pretty big ditz out of me."

"I can't believe _I _overlooked that too. When Bella was human, I kind of figured Edward was just going to pretend to go, but now that they're both vampires they're going to have to look into night classes or not go at all," Alice mused, "I guess we'll have to break this news to them when they get back."

"Maybe you can all find a good vampire and werewolf friendly school, so I'll know my children are together even if they're not with me," Esme said, "I know every parent refuses to let their kids grow up, but it's harder when your kids stay teenagers forever."

"I could use another degree," Alice said jovially, "what do you think, Leah? Should I do fashion design this time?"

Leah smiled, shrugging a bit, "you would love it."

"I already did theater and dance," Alice said, "and I want to do something new. Or maybe I'll study psychology. I could be good at that."

"I suggested that to Edward," Esme said, "I think all of you could use a break from high school."

"Could we," Alice agreed, "plus once Ness turns seven she'll look about ready herself. Bella probably doesn't want her own daughter as her high school lab partner."

"A valid point," Esme agreed. The doorbell rang and Rosalie yelled that she had it. Moments later, Jacob came bounding into the kitchen with an energetic Renesmee and a slightly dejected Rosalie.

"Hey Rose," Alice said, recalling the way the last conversation ended, "we should talk later, okay?"

Rosalie nodded. "I'm going to find Emmett."

She was gone before anyone could argue. Leah went to Alice's side and whispered as softly as she could, "is she okay?"

"We can talk later," Alice said, feeling especially irked at how difficult it was to find privacy in a house of vampires.

Esme had turned the chicken idea into a soup with assorted vegetables and wide egg noodles. Alice watched her lover eat wistfully, wondering what it tasted like. The closest thing she could imagine was the blood of a fowl, but she rarely had occasion to taste that and it wasn't as good as the eaters seemed to find the soup.

"This is delicious, Mrs. Cullen," Leah said.

"Leah, you're family now. You can call me Esme."

Alice was starting to feel lightheaded with both Jacob and Ness in the room. Though she had gotten used to Leah's presence, three people she couldn't read was getting to be a bit much. "I really think I should check on Rose," Alice said, fingers pressed to her throbbing temple.

"Should I come with?" Leah asked.

"I'll be back," Alice responded.

She felt a bit bad leaving her girlfriend, but figured Leah grew up with Jacob and probably had no reason to dislike Esme or Ness. Once she was out of their range, she saw Rosalie huddled in a clearing of the forest where they hunted all the time. Alice remembered the place as Bella and Edward's romantic spot, and wondered how Edward and Rosalie had never crossed paths when they retreated there for their separate reasons.

Knowing it was faster to run than to fly, Alice took off through the trees to find her sister. Even after a century of it, vampire speed was still exhilarating for the vampire with no memory of life being any other way. She ended the run gracefully and came to a full stop in front of a stone-still Rosalie.

"Rose," Alice breathed.

"You should go," Rosalie said, "you left your girlfriend alone."

"My girlfriend isn't reliving rape trauma," Alice said, "she can wait."

When PTSD got the best of her, Rosalie was completely unlike her superficial and beautiful daily-mask. Somehow, Alice only felt real kinship with Rosalie when she was in an incredible amount of pain, and always felt a bit guilty for it.

"I can't believe I blurted out what happened to her," Rosalie said, "she probably thinks I led him on. I've never been anything but a vain bitch around her."

"Leah would never think that," Alice dropped to the ground beside her sister, "no reasonable person would."

"I know, I know," Rosalie sighed, wrapping a fist around her blonde locks.

"It won't grow back," Alice warned her.

"I don't care right now," Rosalie answered.

"I know," Alice pried her sister's hand free, "but you will." When Rosalie started to calm down, Alice asked, "what happened to finding Emmett?"

"I don't know," Rosalie said, "I just started running and this is where I ended up. I tend to forget my sister's a GPS."

"What did pretty hair ever get me?" Rosalie asked. "Why do I even care? I spend so much time in front of a mirror, I'm probably the most beautiful girl in town except for you and Bella but I still have to bring shame to Aphrodite to feel like I'm anything but trash."

"I doubt now's the time for a hug," Alice looked at the ground helplessly.

Rosalie shook her head. "That's the problem with surviving rape. It doesn't matter how bad you need comfort. You can never take it when you need it. You just feel hollow and dirty all the time. God…Alice how pathetic is this? It happened _decades _ago. He's been dead longer than most people live. I could crush a hundred men like him blindfolded and I still feel like some weak little bitch when I think about him."

"We should find Emmett," Alice suggested, "he's a dumb oaf sometimes, but you know he'd do anything for you."

"I know," Rosalie said, "what does it say about me if I can't even be around my own _husband _right now?"

"It says you went through something horrible," Alice said.

"Don't you ever wonder what love really is without sex?" Rosalie asked. "I mean, I was raped but I 'got over it' and Emmett and I broke a forest's worth of furniture. But sometimes I forget I'm safe, that things are different now, and Emmett might as well be the same bastard who did this to me. And then I have to ask him to stop and I feel like such a bitch."

"He doesn't blame you," Alice insisted.

"He _says _he doesn't, but what if he does?" Rosalie asked. "I mean…come on. Everyone wants to think it's about love, but everyone needs sex."

"Not true," Alice said.

"So you're honestly trying to tell me that you and Leah stayed up cuddling all night," Rosalie said sarcastically. Her expression softened when Alice didn't respond.

"Actually, yes," Alice told her, "she told me she wasn't ready and I was fine with that. And so is Emmett. Trust me. That guy loves you, trust me."

"I know," Rosalie said, "I know and it's horrible that I'd even say what I just did."

"No," Alice said, "it's not. He understands and so do I."

"And I'm sorry I assumed stuff about you and Leah. It's not right of me."

A long time ago, Alice might have taken offense, but she had known her sister too long to hold her trauma reactions against her. "I know you didn't mean anything by it," Alice hugged her knees to her chest to compensate for the hug she couldn't give her sister right now.

"I don't know what's come over me," Rosalie said, "I know Jake seems like a good guy but Ness is so little and, well, I don't know if I like him being alone with her. It's stupid and it makes me sound like a possessive bitch but…I mean I heard about how Bella had to try to punch him off her once. He tried to kiss her when she continually told her he wasn't interested, and now he's alone all the time with Ness. I'm not saying he's going to hurt her but if he _did _what the hell would I be able to do about it? And Bella sure isn't going to notice if something is up."

"So your protectiveness of Ness, it's not just a maternal instinct?" Alice asked.

"You heard what Sam did to Emily," Rosalie said, "and Sam imprinted on Emily, he loved her, but he still clawed half her face off. If he hadn't imprinted, that would have been Leah."

A brief flash of rage overcame Alice. "But it wasn't," she breathed.

"How do you think Leah feels about that?" Rosalie asked. "Sure, Ness is made of stronger stuff but she's a baby! I'm sorry…I'm just scared and I don't know what I'm scared of. Bella's been up against a lot, but she's still just _so _innocent and so clueless."

Alice shrugged. "That's part of why I want us all to go to college. I know Bella isn't always comfortable just having stuff handed to her, and she's too smart not to go to college. She might learn a bit about the world that way."

"If Jake hurts Ness, I'll destroy him," Rosalie's eyes darkened with the threat, "same goes for Leah, but I worry less about her because you're not a freaking baby. I guess," she sighed, "I want Ness to have a choice. Right now, she's already wearing a promise ring and she's a baby. I don't want her groomed into some sick arrangement like I was."

"But she loves Jacob," I said, "they're soul mates."

"And so were you and Jasper supposedly, but things changed," Rosalie said.

As relieved as she was not to see him heartbroken every day, Jasper's name still stung. "She does need a life outside the family," Alice agreed. "After we drop the bomb that Dartmouth apparently doesn't offer night classes, we can run that one by Edward and Bella. Oh, and answer your phone."

"It isn't," Rosalie said, cut off by the sound of her ringtone. "Hello. Hi Emmett. Yes I'm fine. Had some flashbacks, Alice is with me. I know. Yeah. No I'm better. I'll be back soon and we can talk. Love you too. Bye."

"Bella and Edward will be there in about ten minutes," Alice said, "Bella was going to wear a plain white t-shirt but she put it away and picked out," Alice winced, "what is wrong with…never mind that's better."

"You and fashion," Rosalie wrapped her arms around Alice finally, and they shared their first hug in years. "Speaking of fashion," Rosalie glanced distastefully at her grass-stained pants.

When they returned to the house, Emmett greeted Rosalie at the door. "We're going for a walk," Emmett announced.

"In these pants?" Rosalie looked disgusted. "Let me change first."

"C'mon Rose," Emmett said, "it's just us and I don't care what your pants look like."

Sighing, Rosalie followed him outside.

"She okay?" Leah asked.

Alice nodded and Esme looked particularly relieved. It was then that Bella and Edward entered an awkwardly silent room.

"We miss something?" Edward asked.

"Hey, you're talking to me!" Alice half-sang.

Alice sighed at Edward's obvious lack of amusement. "Edward knock it off," Bella said, "you can't stay mad at Alice."

"I talked to your _husband_ earlier," Edward said sharply, "he sounded alright if you care."

"I saw," Alice said bitterly.

"Edward, please," Esme said, "we have company."

"I see," he said, glancing uncomfortably in Leah's direction.

"Daddy stop being mean to Auntie Leah," Renesmee said.

Before Edward could speak, Bella joined her daughter and future in-laws at the table. "I'm glad my _daughter_ can be mature about this," Bella said. "Did you already forget what we talked about?" she asked him through narrowed eyes.

With two werewolves in the room, Alice hadn't the slightest image of what it had been. "If you wish," Edward grumbled.

"Why don't you sit down too, Edward?" Esme asked. "We need to talk about your futures."

Edward laughed. "What like I'm seventeen?"

"I recognize that you're an adult, Edward, but I did a little research last night and found that you made a bit of a mistake," Esme said, keeping her tone as gentle as possible.

"What kind of mistake?" Edward asked.

"Well, it's about Dartmouth," Esme said, "Dartmouth…well…"

"It doesn't have night classes," Alice finished.

Bella was the first to react. "What?"

Edward's face fell. "I could have _sworn_. Are you sure?"

Fishing her iPhone out of her pocket, Alice loaded Safari and scrolled through her favorites for the class schedules she had meant to show to Edward.

"Well we never did officially register I guess," Edward said dully. "Oh Bella, I'm so sorry."

"Did you research it, or did you just frantically fill out every application you could fit my name on?" Bella asked, not sure if she should be furious or almost amused.

"When I was first thinking about it, I wasn't expecting to turn you into a vampire," he explained.

"So you were just going to make my lunch and send me off to school?" Bella asked.

"It's _not _a problem," Esme insisted, "I'm sure there are plenty of schools that would be happy to have you."

"Carlisle's not going to be happy about buying us a house up there already," Edward said.

"That _was _just in case," Esme said, "but yes, I'd be a bit more careful with the research next time."

Leah couldn't help but smile at Edward's failed logic.

"So, Alaska then?" Bella asked. "Charlie will be disappointed."

Edward frowned. "Bella, I wanted you to go to an Ivy. I wanted you to have the college experience."

"I told you, I don't care about it being an Ivy," Bella said, "I just want us to be together wherever we end up."

"Not to interrupt, but are any of us _really _going to have the 'college experience'? It's not like most of you can sign up for extracurriculars unless it's really rainy outside or they're really late at night, and any friends you make are going to wonder why you don't age," Leah interjected, "why none of us have facebook accounts, and why we don't attend reunions."

Edward scowled, crossing his arms at his chest. Now, not only was Leah breaking up his family, she was mocking him too. "Bella and I are going to college. You can do what you please."

"Well as soon as I'm convinced that my mom and brother are stable without the dad I accidentally killed I'll be right on some future planning," Leah hissed.

"_Guys_," Alice and Bella said in unison.

"There's nothing to fight about," Esme said, "there are plenty of other colleges to look at, and whatever you choose it's hardly your last chance."

Bella looked displeased. "I think once will be enough for me."

"Gonna pretend you're homeschooled for the next few millennia?" Leah asked.

"It's not a bad idea," Bella said, "I don't think I can sit through another graduation."

"You're a vampire. You can sit through anything," Alice reminded her.

The rest of the evening was occupied with internet searches, printouts, and college-related talks. "I'm not going to get the college experience from an Eskimo school with three hundred students!" Bella said, staring at the living room computer screen.

Edward hit the back button and entered a new search. "Unless you want to learn a new language spoken on one island on the planet you won't have much luck above the North Pole."

After a good deal of time finding very little, everyone started to get frustrated. Edward, because he had made a careless mistake that was likely disappointing Bella, Bella because she had thought the entire college matter was settled, and Leah for reasons Alice couldn't quite decipher. When Alice picked up on this, she pulled Leah aside and asked, "do you want to go someplace and talk?"

Alice agreed, and they took a slow stroll back toward La Push, talking as they walked.

"I want to get out of Forks, not take it with me," Leah said, "except for you. Why do we have to go to school with everyone from here? Why can't we have our own adventure?"

The idea of leaving Bella and Edward to their own devices made Alice a bit nervous. As much as she hated to admit it, she was fiercely protective of her family. "You know…" Alice smiled, "it might be time for that sort of change. When do you want to leave?"

"Leave?" Leah asked. "For where?"

"Who cares?" Alice asked. "We have all the time and money in the world. Why not go anywhere? We deserve a little fun, don't we?"

"Count me in," Leah said. "When _can_ we leave?"

"As soon as we've informed the parents," Alice said.


	5. A ring won't cut it

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and for the wait. My old computer died completely in July and I was without for an entire month. When I finally got to working on this new chapter, I really disliked the first and second versions and scrapped them. That's why it has been so long for this story, but Mi Bella was updated a week or so ago. I also want to say that I'm not 100% sure of what I'm doing right now but I'm trying to do what I can do.

Leah didn't remember the last time she had this much time set aside just for sleep. Like most new shape shifters, she had made the mistake of assuming that needing less sleep meant that she could stop making a habit of it. It was only with Alice's persuasion that she had agreed to bother for the second night in a row. Even if she thought that all this sleeping was unnecessary, she figured it came with the benefits of calming Alice's worry, and giving her eight straight hours to hold Alice and be held. The feeling of another person's body against hers, even if the body was ice cold, was one she hadn't realized she missed until she got it back.

Alice was a perfect cuddler; her head fitting perfectly in the nape of Alice's neck and managing to nuzzle without the occasional elbow jab. As much as Sam had tried to be gentle, he thrashed in his sleep and usually Leah ended up crawling away from him after the second time he woke her up. Everything here was perfect except Leah.

"Do you want me to make you some tea or something?" Alice's face was filled with concern, but she seemed to have no idea what she was supposed to do for her sleepless girlfriend.

"I'm telling you, I just don't sleep that much," Leah tried to keep her tone assuring, "my body's not used to it. But this is nice as it is, right?"

Alice couldn't disagree. The days and nights she spent without Leah always carried loads of guilt for Alice. Without Leah physically present, Alice wanted to call Jasper and beg him to come back to her to ease the mess of uncertainty she was feeling. Keeping Leah near her was the only way Alice could keep her mind at ease that she had made the right choice. When Leah was there, Alice hardly remembered how she ever fell in love with Jasper in the first place. And for everyone's sake, she wanted to keep it that way.

"Tomorrow we should buy you some new pajamas," Alice said casually, realizing that she wasn't disrupting the potential for sleep any more than nature already had.

Leah felt a bit embarrassed, critically eyeing the oversized high school t-shirt and eighth grade gym shorts she was wearing. "When you have a perpetual fever, you don't exactly bother wearing pajamas. I only wear t-shirts and bras like I do because the boys would give me hell. They all run around bare-chested and I have to dress and sweat my ass off running."

The situation seemed unfair to Alice, though she wasn't sure if she was reacting to the issue of sexism, or her own okayness with Leah's theoretical toplessness. "So you actually feel your body temperature?" Alice politely shifted the topic. "That's funny. I'm wearing pure lace and I can't tell I'm cold."

"I can," Leah smiled, "it's kind of nice," she took another look at Alice's lace nightgown, which was just thick enough to hide the essentials, but too sheer to leave you without a pretty good idea, "hey this is an awkward question but...you never wore that with Jasper did you?"

Not wanting Jasper to creep into this conversation, Alice laughed and said, "you were there when I bought it."

"Oh," Leah said, "right." They spent a few more moments in awkwardness before Leah made a move. "Can I try something?"

"Like what?" Alice asked.

Despite her usual nature, Leah went in for a kiss and put effort into drowning every other thought but kissing Alice like Alice had never been kissed before. As it always would be, Leah pulled away first, still needing oxygen to survive. A single quick breath and she started again, this time panting in the aftermath. Alice just watched, completely composed, while her girlfriend refilled her lungs.

"What was that for?" Alice's tone was contently curious.

Shrugging, Leah tried to think of the best response. _I want to make sure the magic of imprinting isn't the only thing giving me props over Jasper. _She internally slapped herself for being childish, and wondered if she could really blame her love insecurities on Sam. Things were fine now, completely fine, and still she felt like she needed to prove herself somehow. "Why not?" was Leah's response. "I figured I can't sleep, you don't sleep, we're both here..."

A small part of Alice told her not to proceed, Leah seemed far too nervous, but it was complicated with how eager her girlfriend seemed. When Leah tried to kiss her again, she accepted and before she knew who had done it or when it had seemed like a good idea, Leah was topless and Alice's slip of a nightgown was gone. Not knowing what Leah was thinking, or even what _she _was thinking drove Alice crazy.

_I wonder if Edward and Bella would have cared about "too soon" if they had been on equal playing fields_, Alice thought. There had likely been very few couples anything like them before, and there was no real protocol for when pre-set soul mates were supposed to have sex.

"Why did we stop?" Leah asked.

"I thought you were the one...I mean," Alice spoke carefully so not to hurt Leah, "I thought you wanted to wait a while."

It took Leah a moment of thought to respond. "I do, I mean I think I do."

"We have forever to have sex," Alice offered, "it doesn't have to be now."

Leah nodded. "I know. I guess, I'm a woman now, or supposed to be. I'm not supposed to be shy about sex. And I don't even know if I _am _shy about sex or if I'm just feeling like I don't know what's exactly right in this situation."

In every small gesture from Leah, Alice couldn't ignore how afraid Leah seemed to be of losing her. Even if in every other way Leah seemed so confident and mature, relationships had always seemed to be a weak spot for her.

For the next few moments, they were silent and Alice wished Edward wasn't still angry with her so she could ask him how he dealt with this when it was Bella. Bella had always been terrified to lose Edward, from the moment she met him it was as if her entire sense of self-worth depended on his love. When the "it's too dangerous" excuse had stopped, Edward had used the "not until marriage" line to make sure she _knew _he was hers forever before they had sex. Though he never said it directly, he always seemed worried that Bella would want sex because she thought she was supposed to. There was no ring Alice could promise Leah to assure her that their love didn't depend on sex. Being an imprint was supposed to be enough to drive all insecurities from both of their minds. Hadn't Jacob recovered from an almost criminal obsession with Bella in seconds to adore her newborn daughter? Hadn't Sam dropped Leah, seemingly without a second thought to be with Emily? A part of Leah still blamed Sam for choosing Emily, even if Leah rationally knew that he couldn't have helped it. Now, Alice wondered if Leah saw her that way. As another Sam who just happened to fall in Leah's favor.

"Hey," Alice said softly, "I'm sorry."

"No," Leah grumbled, "I was the one trying to jump your bones when we've been together for a week."

"You didn't do anything wrong," Alice said, "but maybe you should give me a chance to prove how awesome I am first."

Alice's cockiness was enough to make Leah smile again.

They spoke very little for the rest of the night, just held each other, kissed, and eventually Leah fell asleep and Alice entered a sort of mind-rest that was as close to sleep as she could get. The close to sleep-like calm she experienced was something she thought only Jasper's emotion-controlling abilities could induce, but she didn't move from this state until her phone started to ring at about noon.

"What's going on?" she asked, as groggily as a vampire could.

It was Bella's voice. "Edward and I spent last night researching colleges, and we found something you and Leah might want to look at."

"Oh yeah?" Alice had thought that they had made their intentions clear to embark on a separate college mission, but she figured whatever it was at least deserved a look.

"It's not exactly a college but, well, it would be easier if we could just show it to you later," Bella said.

Noticing Leah stir, Alice took her phone to the next room and tried to be quieter. "Does Edward mind seeing me?"

"He'll live, but I think it'd be better if you came by yourself," Bella said.

"You know that's not exactly fair," Alice said, "when you and Edward first started dating, Rosalie didn't like it and was pretty downright nasty about it, but no one ever told him not to bring you around or not to let you guys be in the same room."

Bella sounded apologetic. "I completely agree with you. Bring Leah, and if he gets upset it's his problem."

Alice wanted to protest, that this hadn't been about needing or wanting to bring Leah, but more about the fact that she should be able to if she wanted. "Actually, there's something I kind of want to talk to Edward about without her. So, guess I'll save the I'm Here I'm Queer proclamation for another day."

"Well you have eternity to do it," Bella offered feebly. "Anyway, we're going hunting soon, but after that you should come by anytime. Jacob's taking Ness to the park with Quil and Claire around four, so why not then?"

As much as she needed to talk to Edward, and felt like now was a good opportunity, she didn't want to leave Leah just to ask Edward what to do about her. "I'll see, and then I'll let you know," Alice said.

It didn't take long after the call for Leah to make her way downstairs. Alice was sprawled on the couch watching an old season some fashion TV show.

"I should be on this show," she commented, glancing casually at Leah, "they keep bringing out these ridiculous cupcakes and saying 'any woman would love to wear this.' I just want to know what woman they're asking."

Leah laughed. "Do you guys have any cereal?"

"Check the pantry," Alice said, "Esme bought a Y2K supply for Ness."

Once she found a bowl and some cereal, Leah joined Alice on the couch. "My brother had a brief thing with this show. He'd end up watching it with my mom because I guess it used to be Dad's job and now she doesn't have any TV company. He gets teased a lot for knowing all the designers, but when you think about it, it's really sweet how much he's been there for Mom since Dad..."

Alice wrapped an arm around her girlfriend. "I'm sorry."

"I know both of them wonder why I haven't tried as hard as he has. Thing is, it's a lot of sad to be around and I'm not really ready to deal with it. I see Mom barely put together and she breaks into crying when everything seems fine and then I start. I know I need to talk to her and deal with things but it's a lot, and I was ready to try but then you came along and now talking to her is like talking to a brick wall. It kind of sucks that now Seth's basically got the position as 'the good child.'"

"It probably puts a lot of pressure on him too," Alice said.

Leah nodded. "Oh, I don't doubt it."

"Listen," Alice temporarily changed the subject, "Edward and Bella want to see me a bit later, kind of a private family thing, but I don't want to leave you here..."

"Edward told you not to bring me?" Leah guessed.

For a moment, it occurred to her that Alice could lie and pretend that her assertion with Bella never happened. Realizing that was unfair, she said, "Bella wasn't sure if it was a good idea for you to be there, and I told her that she can't tell me not to bring you around Edward when just a couple of years ago he was the one bringing someone around that the family wasn't too sure about. Bella agrees with me that we need to just let Edward cope, but I think for this visit I need to talk to Edward one-on-one."

"About us?" Leah asked.

Leah was right, but not for the reasons she thought. "Basically."

"Well it's fine if you need some time to talk to your brother," Leah said, "I'm not that possessive. Maybe I should take the time to talk to my own brother about a few things."

"Sounds like a reasonable idea," Alice said.

After a couple hours of terrible TV, Leah called Seth and was on her way to see him, and Alice was on her way to see Edward. Now that Leah was gone, she could see the conversation starting. Future Edward was at least convinced enough to talk to future Alice, and that was all the reassurance she needed to ring the doorbell.

"Hey," Bella said brightly. "Come on in, you've got to see this."

Alice followed Bella to their computer, and took a seat at the chair. "I could have seen this coming if Leah hadn't been around," she said, taking a look at the screen. Bella and Edward had received an e-mail from a vampire who was sending to a massive list.

_Greetings, fellow vampires._

_Recent events for our kind have been rather troubling. Issues like immortal children, coven violence, delinquent newborns, and vampires who reject feeding from humans have caused many of us to question and fear for the future of our kind. While our bodies remain unchanging, it seems that our minds and our lives are as flexible and fluid as the world we live in. A misunderstanding sent the Voltourri ready to attack the vegetarian Cullen family, whose newest member recently gave birth to a half-vampire daughter. To the shock of the Voltourri and every vampire who has heard of it, the newly turned Mrs. Bella Cullen was able to use pure mind power to protect her entire family and an array of supporters from the Voltourri._

_For those of us who dislike authority, or have questioned the right of the Voltourri to police our kind, this may seem like a victory. What we cannot do, however, is continue to let things go as they have. There is no reason for us to believe that Bella is the only vampire alive who can resist the Voltourri. New vampires with abilities we can only begin to understand are being born all the time, and many of us are not confident that the Voltourri will be able to protect us._

_While we feel that the Voltourri have outlived their usefulness as leaders among us, we do not suggest to overthrow them, but rather to find new ways to bring vampires together. Just like humans, who deal with rebellious teenagers and rebels without causes with education and activities, we are working to develop a private vampire community for vampires of all ages to come together and learn from one another. Most importantly, we are building a sort of private university where vampires who wish to reacquire degrees for human jobs can have their needs met without worrying about the inconvenience of night classes and distance learning, and newborns can learn self-control and a sense of belonging with their new identities. _

_A common myth is that newborns are inherently bloodthirsty and uncontrollable. Like human adolescents, newborns feel their desires more acutely than the rest of us, but they can learn to control them and live in the real world. As our natural habitats and environments diminish, it is no longer feasible for the majority of our kind to live hidden away in nature. It is for these reasons that we have decided to open up the largest and most ambitious vampire communities ever created. Our community will be a safe-haven as well as an education center and training ground for vampires of all ages. Among friends and kindred, you will be able to learn ancient languages unknown to most humans, first-hand spiritual truths, and undergo extensive training toward honing your unique abilities. The potential of our species should no longer be wasted._

"How many vampires actually have the internet?" Alice asked. "I mean this sounds like it could be a good idea, but it won't work if no one hears about it."

Bella nodded. "I had the same question so I contacted the writer and his coven is working to track down as many vampires as possible. Some get letters, some get calls, some get e-mails, etc. Do you want to see the website?"

"There's a _website_?" Alice was skeptical. "I kind of figured using the internet was a pretty easy way to piss off the Voltourri."

Feeling curious, Alice let Bella click the link to what looked like a very ordinary college website. "A new and groundbreaking approach to education with rigorous academics and rigorous admissions standards. We demand the best because we give the best."

Scrolling down revealed photographs of two pale young looking vampires sitting idly in sand under a large palm tree. The "college" existed on a private vampire-owned island.

"Is that really going to be big enough?" Alice asked incredulously, scrolling through pictures of buildings and dormitories and local homes and "businesses" nearby. There were even a couple of listings for restaurants, and "must see" locations for visiting parents, which Alice thought was pretty thorough. Except for the too-beautiful "students" posing in pictures, and its unusual island location, it looked pretty typical of a college town.

"Of all the vampires in the world, only a few are really that eager to meet others. Plus, from what I've heard, there are other more underground vampire meeting places around the world. This is just the first one that has gotten any press," Bella said jovially, "I'm really hoping there'll be a place for Ness there. I wasn't really looking forward to having her first day of school be at high school."

"How does Edward feel about this?" Alice asked.

"Edward isn't entirely comfortable letting his half-human daughter go to any school, vampire or not, but he thinks so far it might be the best option we have," Bella said coolly. "Why isn't Edward out here?"

On cue, Edward came out of his room carrying his own laptop. "I've been talking to Tanya's family," he said, glaring slightly at Alice, "and her sisters think it's the perfect opportunity to start dating within their species. Tanya's a bit more doubtful, and Jasper is practically already packing."

"He would be," Alice thought out loud, remembering how uncomfortable he had been living with humans.

"The big controversy though, is how people are going to hunt," Edward explained, "a few different suggestions have been brought up, but nobody can agree on everything yet. So don't pack yet."

Bella laughed. "With all the clothes I've got, I could pack for a month and still be fine."

"Most girls would be so lucky," I playfully insulted her.

"No, no," Bella said, "if there's one thing I'm not going to do, it's complain about my life. I still wonder sometimes how I ended up this lucky."

Edward glowered a bit, and Alice was sure that "luck" was not a word in his vocabulary. When he described finding Bella, it was "divine inspiration," and "destiny" that made his clumsy human soul mate trip into his path. That reminded me...

"Hey Edward," Alice said, trying to sound casual, "glad you're here. I was actually wondering if we could talk."

Sometimes Emmett used to joke that Edward practiced his tortured and brooding expressions in front of a mirror. A high school or two before Forks, he had been the delight of the drama department, with both teachers volunteering their glowing recommendations. As good as he had looked on stage as Romeo, Macbeth, the Miser, Tony from Westside Story, the kissing scenes had always felt too awkward for him and reminded him bitterly of the Juliet/Maria he was missing.

He looked irate at the thought of spending enough time with his sister to _talk_, but Alice was hardly going in without a plan of attack. "Just a walk," Alice said, emphasizing the "just."

"Really, Edward," Bella pleaded, "I think you two need to catch up."

"Very well," he said, grabbing a jacket for show, in case any humans were to see him walking through the forest where he lived.

When he and Alice had reached a safe distance from the house, Edward asked crossly, "so what is it?"

"Well it's kind of about you and Bella actually," Alice said, hoping to win him with mention of his favorite subject, "it always seems like you were so good at being the perfect boyfriend," even if he sometimes stepped over the line between protective and stalker, "and I thought it was really wonderful how you two handled the decision to get intimate. I'm sorry," she winced, "I know this is personal."

"You want advice on how to seduce Leah?" he grumbled.

"Not at all," Alice sounded alarmed and probably was, "remember how, in the beginning Bella was always so afraid of losing you?"

He nodded gravely. "Sometimes I think she still is, but at least now she's convinced she's _pretty _enough," he waved his hand dismissively. The idea of any version of his wife being ugly was not only silly, but blasphemous in his mind. "Why?"

"Okay," Alice sighed, "this is about Leah," she paused for a moment, frustrated that both their paths of decision were too uncertain for her to clearly map this conversation's outcome, "she's the same way, only I'm not her first love. She had a serious boyfriend a few years ago who imprinted on someone else shortly after...uhm..." Alice wasn't sure how much was appropriate to share, but figured she had to tell someone, "after they became intimate. And now she's always worried that I'm going to leave her too."

"Wonder where someone would get that idea?" Edward asked.

"Think about it, Edward. When you wanted to prove to Bella that you were hers forever, you had the marriage option. I can wait as long as Leah wants to wait but how am I going to know that _she _knows that I'm serious about her, and that she doesn't need to do things with me to make me stay?"

"I guess no marriage doesn't stop most people," Edward sounded appalled by the idea, "but if it matters so much, I'm sure Carlisle will buy you a plane ticket to Massachusetts or wherever they do that sort of thing. But you're not actually planning on marrying her, are you?"

"Not yet, of course," Alice said, "but eventually I think Leah will need more than an 'I promise I love you,' to trust me. It doesn't have to be marriage, but _something_."

He shook his head. "Marriage is...well...it's not..."

"Are you really going to tell me marriage isn't for 'my kind'?" Alice asked. "Why not? Because gays can't have babies? Because gays have perverted, non-procreative sex? That's all well and good, but how procreative have you and Bella been lately?"

"It isn't the same thing," he said bitterly, "we _could _be and we were. And we're man and wife..."

"So then what about Rosalie and Emmett? No procreation there. And are you going to stand here and tell me that Bella got all bruised during her honeymoon from missionary?"

"Alice, I'm sorry, but you're going too far," he said threateningly.

Alice sighed. "But I'm only trying to ask you a simple question. I really, really hurt Jasper and I don't want to hurt Leah. You're the only person I know who has been with someone even remotely like her."

"I have to stay out of this," Edward said, "I'm sorry. If you want girl advice, talk to Emmett. I'm sure he has plenty to tell you."

So, her vision had been wrong. Something had changed Edward's mind, perhaps some mistake in her approach had prevented them from having a useful conversation.

Heading home by herself, Alice wondered why she hadn't considered talking to Emmett. For as vacant and jock-like as he seemed to most human and unknowing observers, a man had to have an incredible store of depth and patience to understand and compliment someone like Rosalie. She pulled out her cell phone and sent a text, asking him if he had time to talk. His response was that he was all hers once Pimp My Ride was over, so she returned home in a slightly better mood than she had been in when Edward left.

"Hey Alice," Emmett greeted, "man look at this. Can you imagine having those freakish speakers in the back of your car? And I worry _my _car's going to get stolen when I drive it to the mall."

Alice took a seat beside Emmett. "Where's Rosalie?"

"Renesmee dragged her to the park with Jake. She she's going to make Auntie Rosie and her Jakey be friends. I told her to have fun with that," he chuckled, "you can't tell that kid no," his eyes glowed with what could almost be called paternal affection.

"As much as Renesmee is sometimes Rosalie's kid, it seems like she's yours too," Alice said, "she's all of ours."

He nodded. "Shit, we should get _you _an in-car recording studio," he commented, returning his focus to the TV, "you'd probably be better than the girl they show on here."

Alice couldn't deny it. "Dang it, now you're making me want one."

"It's hardly like you're hurting for gadget money," Emmett reminded her, "why not get one?"

"I'll think about it, but it isn't exactly the first thing on my mind," Alice said.

"Bella said she invited you over to tell you about some school. Any luck with Edward?" he asked.

Alice realized that she badly wanted to talk to Emmett, or someone, about this new vampire "college town," but something else was more important.

"I did something stupid and asked him for relationship advice," Alice said weakly.

When he realized that Alice looked hurt, Emmett suppressed his laughter. "Oh...no way. What did he say?"

"I asked him because I thought he was the best person to understand what I'm going through. Leah really doesn't trust anyone relationship-wise right now, and I figured Edward could relate with how Bella always doubted she was even good enough for him. He told me to leave him out of it and find you."

"That's about the best advice you were going to get out of Edward," Emmett said.

Alice could see a personal anecdote about Rosalie and a warm heart-to-heart in their future, but pulled away from the vision to allow things to happen naturally. "She thinks she needs to do more to prove to me that she's worth it or something. Like since, presumably, I was in a sex-having relationship for longer than her mom has been alive, there's no way a new and slowly developing relationship will be good enough for me."

Emmett turned off the television. "Rosalie kind of thought that way too when we met," he said, "how's a girl supposed to trust her new husband-to-be when her last one was impatient enough to..." it touched Alice how, even after so long, Emmett was still murderously angry at the people who had hurt Rosalie, "we did more than we should have earlier than we should have and it was a nightmare. It took a lot of work to build our relationship back from that."

"I guess with Leah it's not exactly the same," Alice said, "Rosalie's case is obviously worse. But it's unfair because there's no marriage I can offer her to show her how devoted I am, and there's no ring I can give her that'll assure her I'm not leaving for someone else."

"Then you just have to show her," Emmett said, "popping a ring on a girl's finger is taking the easy way out and you _know _that isn't what Leah wants. It's hard for us because back when you and Jasper married, and when I met Rosalie, that was exactly how things happened. But now days, people have to prove it by just being together and the proof will be self-evident or something I guess."

Alice smiled. It wasn't typical for Emmett to get sentimental, but when he did he was often wiser than he realized. She made a mental note to see Leah after Leah was done with Seth.

When they reunited, a few feet off the now de-facto treaty line, they embraced like two people equally in need of consolation. Leah instinctively brushed Alice's cheek to wipe the tears away, but found that there were no tears, only the emotions that should bring them.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Leah said, "I'm acting like a stupid insecure high school chick and I need to knock it off."

"You weren't doing any of that," Alice said, "I'm a little more with the times than most of my siblings, but I still don't exactly know how dating works in this century."

"Fuck how dating works in this century," Leah said, "I don't want to date like that, where one of us is the girl and one is the guy and we wait until both of us are _comfortable and informed_. If we're supposed to be soul mates, I think we can do better than 'how things work.' It can work however it wants to, I'm just happy that I've actually found you and can stop wondering who's going to love my twenty-year-old menopausal werewolf self."

"Good," Alice beamed, "because I love your twenty-year-old menopausal werewolf self and there's nothing your Sam scars and depression can do about it."

Leah looked pleased, but didn't know how to respond.

"Can we go get some stuff?" she asked. "My mom has stopped putting food in the house. She's always eating at The Only Restaurant with Charlie, and Seth is surviving on junk food."

"Sure," Alice said, "where to?"

A little persuasion on Alice's part set Leah, Alice, and Seth on a path to the mall. "Is this my punishment for eating unhealthy stuff?" Seth whined from the back seat.

"There are restaurants at the mall," Alice said, "and besides you were going to wait at least another month to replace all the shirts you ripped as a werewolf weren't you?"

"I thought Leah said you can't see our futures," Seth said.

"I can't," Alice responded.

"I know you're all boys, but seriously if I have to keep buying new shirts then so do you," Leah said.

"Not according to most of the pack," Seth chuckled, then shuddered, his mind filled with too many awkward memories of his sister naked.

"_So_," Alice chirped, picking up from the awkwardness, "where do you guys want to eat? There's this awesome new lobster restaurant close to the mall that I'll bet you guys would like."

"Have you ever eaten lobster?" Seth asked. "I mean, when you were human?"

Alice shrugged. "I don't remember being human, so I couldn't tell you."

"Have you seen how much it costs then?" Seth asked.

"That's the perk of predicting the stock market," Alice said warmly, "you can treat your girlfriend and future-when-Washington-comes-around brother in law."

Leah blushed. "Guess it probably will come around in our lifetimes now that I think about it, even if we are too lazy to ever go to one of the legal states."


	6. Applications and Angry Brooding

A/N: I apologize in advance to any Edward fans. He's still being...difficult. And this should be the last chapter before they get up and outta here so thanks for being patient.

It was weird for Alice to see such a social atmosphere around eating. In her family, everyone was either ashamed of _needing _to eat the way they did, boastful about whatever humungous creature they killed, or just plain silent about the whole ordeal until it became time to do it again. Mrs. Clearwater hadn't wanted Alice over for dinner, thinking it would be rude not to cook for her and eat while she couldn't, but Alice had insisted. If dinner was a girlfriend's usual proving grounds, then Alice wasn't going to miss it for the world.

"So...Alice," Mrs. Clearwater's voice was stiff, "any college plans?"

Alice smiled proudly, thinking of what Bella showed her last night. "I've been to college at least a dozen times, so I wasn't really thinking about it until Leah showed up to be honest. The only reason for me to have gone before was just to keep up the human charade, but then Leah came along and I wanted to share the experience with her."

"What would you do while Leah had to _study_?" Mrs. Clearwater's voice was biting.

"Mom," Leah pleaded.

"I was worried about that too actually," Alice wasn't lying, "I didn't think it would be fair if Leah was legitimately working on new things and learning and meeting new people and I was just hanging around. But...you know Bella, right?"

"Charlie's daughter?" Mrs. Clearwater asked. "Married to your brother?"

Alice nodded. "Yes, that's her. She invited me over last night, and apparently she got an invitation to a special college for people like us. Not just a college, an entire community where we won't have to worry about sparkling or moving too fast or sitting too still. The history professors were _there _when history happened, and the English professors probably watched the English language evolve from Chaucer. I think Leah would love it."

"Do you _really _think that an entire community of vampires is going to welcome a werewolf with open arms?"

Leah sighed. She had explained to her mother a thousand times since the confrontation with the Voltouri that she wasn't a _werewolf_. Trying was getting pretty old.

"I do actually," Alice said, "and here's why. Vampires were never really able to start their own community like this before, because our government was stopping us. The government that claimed to be 'preserving our way of life' and allowing us to hunt like predators throughout the ages also tried to keep us from having any chance at living truly fulfilling lives. They were _very _hostile toward my family for being vegetarian."

"Vegetarian?" Mrs. Clearwater didn't sound convinced. "You feed off of carrots?"

"No," Alice sighed, "we are meat eaters but we hunt animals, not people. Just like most meat-eating humans do. Anyway, myths were constantly being spread that true vampires wouldn't want to live with other vampires, that true vampires wanted to roam aimlessly in forests, completely alone. That was true for some, but it wasn't all of us. After Leah helped us stand up to this government that has been around longer than I've been alive, no sane vampire will have anything negative to say about her."

"Really?" Mrs. Clearwater asked. "And how much will this cost?"

"From what I understand, it doesn't," Alice said, "most vampires don't have money, and those who do have a _lot _of it. When you get to be a hundred, your bank acquires a lot of interest."

"Leah, is this actually something you'd want to do?" Mrs. Clearwater sounded very skeptical, putting Leah a bit on the defensive.

"Of course I do!" Leah realized her tone was sharp and did her best to soften it. "It is so stressful trying to make sure I don't phase in front of the wrong person, that I don't let my emotions get the better of me when you invite Charlie over, that I don't let anybody shake my hand and feel how hot my skin is. If there's a place I won't have to do that, I'm in."

"Me too," said Seth, rather unexpectedly.

Now Mrs. Clearwater looked like she was going to faint. "Well...wait a second. How is vampire college going to prepare you for the real world? For the job market?"

"They're working on accreditation," Alice explained, "it's why they're trying to round up as many vampires/what-have-you who are used to being around humans so the inspections can run smoothly. This school can not only _give _Leah a degree, but renew it every few years so no human will suspect. She can get jobs, she can travel, she can do anything she wants to."

"As long as you're around," Mrs. Clearwater said sternly. The truth was, she had always hoped her children would outlive her, but had never considered the extent to which they would.

"But she will be," Leah said, and for the first time Alice sensed confidence from her girlfriend and felt like she could soar.

"Didn't you leave your husband of over sixty years to be with my daughter?" Mrs. Clearwater asked.

"Oh come on," Leah protested, "are you really going to support Sam and Emily's relationship, but not mine with Alice?"

"Good point," Seth said.

"Sam wasn't _married _to you, Leah. And while I never approve of someone breaking my daughter's heart, it was a different story altogether," Mrs. Clearwater responded.

Alice nodded gravely, trying to figure out a way to dig herself out of this. Luckily, she didn't have to. "That's how imprints work," Leah said, "you don't know they're coming and you certainly don't know that there's better love out there than whatever you're in. I know Jacob didn't expect to imprint on his unrequited love's baby daughter."

"I never pretended to understand that one either," Mrs. Clearwater was abashed, "I just think...wow...the idea of marrying someone you saw in diapers."

"It scares him too," Leah said, "but the great thing about imprints is, there's always something more important than your fear."

"This is definitely never what I would have wanted for you," Mrs. Clearwater said.

Now, Alice felt, was her turn to defend. "I know I'm not what any mother really wants for her son, much less her daughter, but I swear to you I'm not going to hurt Leah and I'm not going to leave her. If she weren't a shape shifter, maybe a normal relationship with a human would make sense but she is, and it doesn't."

"If you ever have kids, you'll understand," Mrs. Clearwater said, "it's scary to see your child become something you don't even understand. I certainly don't blame them for my husband's death but, well, he couldn't handle it _ at all_. It's hard being a single parent of two werewolves."

Resisting the urge to fly into a rage, Alice said, "I understand. Maybe I don't understand being a parent, but I understand not wanting to see the people I care about get hurt."

"A lover is nothing like your own child," Mrs. Clearwater said.

Alice nodded. "Wasn't suggesting it was. Bella is crazy about Edward, but her love for Edward has _nothing _on her love for Renesmee," Alice at least wanted to believe it was true, "the way she completely loses it if _anything _could happen to Renesmee at all really amazes me. I didn't have real parents before Carlisle and Esme, so I really hope that however hard it is, you guys will find a way to get along."

"What happened to your parents?" Mrs. Clearwater asked softly.

"Alice, you don't have to ans..." Leah started.

Alice interrupted, "no it's fine. Honestly I don't really remember my real parents. But I was a little like Leah in that, I found out I was _very _different sometime in my teen years. Instead of shape shifting, I had psychic visions. They left me in a mental hospital to rot and back then, mental hospitals weren't hospitals at all, just asylums for lunatics. Not a place I'd ever leave someone I loved."

"That's terrible," Mrs. Clearwater said. "I may not like Leah being a were-_shape shifter_," she forced, "but I would never..._never _do that to her."

That was all Alice needed. "I'm glad."

After dinner, Alice and Leah went for a walk by themselves to digest the evening. "I think she'll come around," Leah said, "good job tugging at her heartstrings."

"I didn't even mean to really," Alice said, "I just know what happens when parents get so afraid of their children being different from them, that they forget their kids are _their _kids. Forget to love them entirely."

"I don't think she forgets to love us," Leah said, "I just think she forgets that we're still the same kids we always were, you know?"

Alice nodded. "I tried to talk to Edward last night."

Leah half-chuckled, then put her arm around Alice. "How did that go?"

"About as well as you could expect. I thought I could find some common ground with him, because he dated a human and I'm dating somebody who is still technically living out a normal lifespan. Too bad though, the fact that we're gay just makes us night and day different from Edward and his lovely Bella," Alice was surprised at how bitter she was sounding.

"They seem like a pretty traditional 1950s couple," Leah said, "Edward _kind of _has all the power, but if Bella whines enough he'll do what she says."

"I didn't want to think of it that way, but you know you might be right," Alice said, "he was going to let her have a drive-through wedding in Vegas before I stepped in."

"Did she even want to marry him in the first place?" Leah asked.

"I don't know," Alice said, "I don't think so. She was all horrified about being the eighteen-year-old just-out-of-high-school bride. But it was pretty much either get married and let her dad at least get to give her away, or just essentially die. Everybody in the family was content to just hide her from her family forever and pretend she died on their honeymoon until Jacob finally dragged Charlie over to the house. I love my family but sometimes I hate every last one of them."

"Don't we all?" Leah asked.

When Alice and Leah got back to the Cullen mansion, Bella and a grumpy looking Edward were passing out "college applications" to Rosalie, Emmett, Jacob, and Renesmee. "Oh, hi you two," Bella said cheerfully, handing a stack of papers to each of them.

They both reluctantly took their seats, away from Edward, and reached for books or magazines to use as a hard surface.

"Why don't you let me do that?" Edward asked, as Bella began to fill in her name.

"I'm not human anymore, Edward," Bella sighed, "I can write my own name."

Not liking to feel useless, Edward shifted his attention to his toddler daughter, who was also filling out her application without his help. "Daddy do you think I'll get in?" Renesmee asked.

"Of course you will," Jacob said, "who wouldn't want you at their school?"

"Why don't you let _me _get my daughter ready for school?" Edward glowered.

"Maybe because you're too busy babying your wife to bother," Jacob retorted.

"Guys!" Emmett rose to his feet. "Seriously. Edward, take some Midol."

"You're really going to make sexist period jokes in front of your wife?" Edward asked.

"He knows what I can handle," Rosalie had originally planned to stay out of this, but didn't like seeing Emmett attacked, "better than you do."

Alice sensed that Bella's idealism was slowly, very slowly fading. "You guys, come on! I thought we could just do this thing together and _try _to get along."

"We'll get along when your husband gets over the fact that shape shifters have invaded his perfect little bloodsucker family," Jacob spat. When he realized what he was implying about Renesmee, he stroked her hair and said, "I'm sorry sweetie."

"Well _excuse me _if I don't want a pedophile hanging around my daughter!" Edward roared.

"Daddy stop being mean to Jakey!" Renesmee screeched.

"You don't know anything about this guy," Edward said. "Do you know what he wants? Do you?"

"Daddy stop it!" Renesmee shrieked. "He wants to buy me a big house next door to yours and buy me lots of toys and dresses and ponies!"

"Want to know _why_?" Edward hissed.

"Edward STOP!" both Alice and Leah were in front of him, physically restraining his verbal abuse. Within seconds, a crowd of scorned vampires and shape shifters had assembled around Edward.

"Come on," he motioned to Bella and Renesmee, "we're going home."

"Mommy do we have to?" Renesmee asked.

"No," Bella said firmly. "Edward, you're acting like...you know what? Mike Newton is more mature than you're being right now."

It was a low blow but nobody doubted it was called for.

"Then why did you let me turn you into a vampire, hmm?" Edward asked. "Why did you marry me?"

"Mommies and daddies aren't supposed to yell at each other!" Renesmee argued. "They're supposed to love each other? Jakey said when you get married you promise to love each other and not be mean! You have to be nice because you promised." They were childish words, but Renesmee looked truly shaken.

"I also have an obligation to keep you safe," Edward said.

"You can't separate them," Leah said, "any more than anybody in either of your families could separate you from Bella."

"For real," Emmett said, "you can't stand here and say that your love is somehow better than everyone else's."

"You're _okay _with this, Emmett. Rosalie?" he asked, hoping to appeal to her maternal and rape survivor side. "You, after everything, are okay letting the closest thing you've ever had to a daughter hang around this..."

"I swear if you call him a dog again I'm leaving you," Bella said.

That was enough. Edward backed down and recoiled in his seat. "You'd really leave me over this? Over trying to do what's best for our daughter?"

"No," Bella said, "I'd leave you for being a bigot. You're the one who taught me _not _to judge people. You didn't know, because you couldn't read my mind, but I was scared when I found out you were a vampire. I had no reason to believe you wouldn't kill me other than I was madly in love with you and I needed to believe you. And I'm glad I had faith in you, because I figured out that love was stronger than whatever part of you wanted to rip my flesh apart," she used the words deliberately, knowing the image of tearing Bella apart would cut at Edward, "if love can keep a vampire from hurting the best smelling human he's ever met, don't you think love can keep Jacob from hurting Renesmee?"

"It didn't keep _Alice _from hurting Jasper," Edward argued.

"And surprisingly, Jasper is being more of an adult about all this than you are," Bella said.

A few moments passed and Bella stormed off. "I don't think you should chase her," Emmett said to Edward. But it was too late.

"Jakey where did Mommy and Daddy go?" Renesmee asked.

"They couldn't do it without me," Jacob sighed.

"I never thought I'd see the day Bella _stayed _mad at Edward," Leah commented.

"I'm really sorry this is the impression you're getting of our family," Emmett said, "I swear we don't all have sticks up our..."

"Not in front of Ness," Rosalie warned.

"Sorry," Emmett said. "But geez...Edward used to be the totally level-headed one. I thought we had all the drama in the family. Us and maybe Jasper."

"Why don't you finish your application, Ness?" Jacob asked. "I'm going to talk to Bella. Alone."

His tone dared anyone to try to stop him.

"Oh geez," Leah sighed, when Jacob was gone. "Not this again."

"What's Jakey doing?" Ness asked.

"I really think someone should just explain this Edward/Jacob drama to Ness already," Rosalie said, "it's getting ridiculous."

"Won't that just creep her out?" Emmett asked.

"I wanna know!" Ness said.

"When your daddy and your mommy first started dating, your daddy didn't think he was good enough for your mommy. He was scared he'd hurt her, so he left her thinking she'd be happier without him," Rosalie began.

"Rose, I don't think Edward would want Ness to hear this," Emmett said.

"Tough," Rosalie said, "anyway, your daddy broke up with your mommy and moved somewhere else. She was really hurt and she didn't really talk to anybody for months."

"If Jakey did that I'd yell at him," Ness said.

"Well your mommy probably wanted to, but she couldn't. He was gone," Rosalie said, "he thought he was helping her. Anyway, Jacob was your mommy's best friend back then. They spent a lot of time together, and Jacob thought he was falling in love with your mom. He just wanted to be around her all the time. He didn't know yet that he was really in love with you, but since you weren't born yet, he was confused. Anyway, Jacob cared about your mommy a lot and didn't want her to get hurt. Your daddy came back and apologized to your mom, and they got back together."

"Poor Jakey!" Renesmee said. "How come no one liked him?"

"Because your mom knew she was supposed to be with Edward. And deep down Jacob knew he wasn't supposed to be with your mommy, "Rosalie said, "anyway, Jacob didn't trust your daddy, and your daddy didn't want your mom hanging around Jacob. He was scared that Jacob might hurt your mommy, or maybe take your mommy away from him."

"But how come he didn't know better?" Ness asked. "Cuz I'm a baby and I know better!"

Put in that context, it was pretty comical.

"So your mommy and your daddy got married," Rosalie continued, "and when they went on a vacation together your mommy got pregnant with you."

"But they thought she was sick," Renesmee filled in.

"Basically," Rosalie said, "no one knew what happened to her, so Jacob came over to make sure she was okay. They kept right on fighting up until the moment you were born. Jacob realized that he didn't really love Bella, he was just waiting for Bella to have you. And most of the time when men Jacob's age love girls your age, they're bad people who hurt kids. Your daddy doesn't quite understand what's going on yet."

"But Jakey isn't a bad person who hurts kids!" to Renesmee it was the only argument needed. "Can't Jakey just tell daddy that?"

"He tried," Rosalie said, "but your daddy loves you so much that he can't listen yet."

It wasn't totally satisfying to Renesmee, but she knew there wasn't much else to ask. Eventually, everyone returned to their applications and tried to be chirpy as possible.

"They did a good job with these," Leah said, "they look just like every other application I've ever filled out."

"Have you gotten to the essay yet?" Rosalie asked. "In the _why do you want to attend_ question, your answer will tell them if you're a vampire/shape shifter or not, and that's all that really counts. The rest is a formality."

"And a waste of time for whatever human kids decide to apply here," Leah said.

"Yeah, but this school is selective enough that kids know not to make it their first choice," Rosalie said, "at least from my understanding."

"What activities did I do in high school?" Ness asked.

"Shouldn't her application be different from ours?" Alice asked, scribbling down some theater experience from her school before Forks.

Rosalie shook her head. "They have one application that's more an application to let you live on their island in the first place than an actual college application. If Ness doesn't fill out a single question but the essay and her name she'll still get in. Chances are though, her classes won't be college-like."

Alice nodded. "Sure sure."

Everyone was finished long before Bella came back without Edward or Jacob. "Oh crap, where's Edward?" Emmett asked.

"I don't know," Bella said honestly, "can I just stay here tonight?"

"Slumber party!" Renesmee said. Her cheer was short-lived when she saw how upset her mother looked. She frowned. "Daddy's being a stupid dumb head."

Bella opened her mouth to correct her daughter, but stopped. "I don't think I can argue with you right now."

"I should find Jake," Leah said, "make sure he and Edward aren't attacking each other."

"I should come with," Alice offered.

"No," Leah said, "I think I can make Jacob stop, but I doubt any of you have much sway over Edward."

Those words were biting to Bella, who was used to at least having _some _sway in the relationship.

"I'll deal with Edward," Emmett said.

"Emmett," Rosalie pleaded. She knew Emmett was fiercely loyal and protective of her and other people he loved, and didn't want to see that pitted against Edward's current state of brooding.

Before anyone else could object, Leah and Emmett were gone.

"This is getting stupid," Alice said to Bella, "I'm sorry Edward's being like this."

"Is Daddy leaving Mommy again?" Renesmee looked horrified.

"No, no," Alice stepped in, "after the first time, he promised he wouldn't..."

"If anyone's leaving this time, it's Mommy," Bella said dryly.

Alice felt pretty shocked. Those were fighting words coming from Bella, but Alice was never sure how much stock to put in Bella's "anger" with Edward. It seemed to come and go and always seemed solvable with a little flip of his hair. This time, he probably should get on the hair flipping a little faster, Alice thought.

Leah and Emmett returned, Emmett practically dragging Edward into the house. "Jake went home," Leah said, "he's my alpha so I can't really do anything about that."

"But I'm not letting Edward leave until we have this shit sorted out. At least between everyone present," Emmett said.

"Emmett come on," Rosalie said. She had to admit his heroism was great at times, but now was not one of those times.

"Why did Uncle Emmett say a bad word?" Renesmee asked.

Bella frowned. "Edward, seriously. Jacob is a part of our family, and so is Leah now. If you can't deal with that, you can go home by yourself. I'm staying here tonight."

He seethed and returned to his seat on the couch. "I thought my wife of all people would understand. Here I tried _so _hard, damned or not, to keep our relationship pure, to keep things proper, and you're sending our daughter off with a..."

Bella shook her head, looking angry. "You didn't do all that purity stuff for me. _We _did it for you," she hissed, "I had no problem with sex before marriage, I was undecided what my _opinion _was on marriage, but it was important to _you_. So we did it."

"I don't know what you're saying," Edward breathed, "so now you regret marrying me?"

"I never said that," Bella said, "_never_. I'm saying, I've always been more progressive than you. I've never been homophobic or conservative. It just seems a little odd to me that you never noticed."

"I spent a hundred and eight years searching for Bella," he seethed, "searching for the _perfect woman_ who could return my humanity. And Bella has so little respect for our daughter, for _my _daughter, to throw her to a...dog."

Bella shook her head. "Are you really that insecure, that your marriage feels _threatened _by your own daughter?"

Everyone just watched, letting the fight continue in front of them. Until Leah stepped in. "Okay, look. You obviously love each other or you wouldn't have gone through all this crap to be together. And obviously Alice and I love each other _and you _to put up with all the crap we're getting from you, and if Jacob didn't honestly love Ness, do you really think he'd be content to spend seven or more years playing patty cake with her before even thinking about what's in it for him? There's not a single person here whose love is _normal _or usually even acceptable, so none of us really have the right to judge each other."

"I don't want to hear it," Edward said.

"I thought that would work," Leah muttered to Alice.

"I think it'd be best if you and Bella figured your own stuff out before dealing with us," Alice said. She took Leah's hand and they left, applications in Leah's messenger bag.

"When we get to vampire school, I want a dorm room on the opposite side of the island from theirs. With sound-proof walls," Leah said bitterly.

Putting her arms around Leah, Alice tried to think of something to say to lessen the blow of Edward's behavior. "Whatever you want," was all Alice could come up with.

"Let's just get these things finished and in the mail," Leah said, "even if they come with us, they'll have hundreds of other people to annoy, won't they?"

"Be mad at my brother if you need to be, but try not to be too hard on Bella," Alice said, "I think she's finally waking up a bit, and it's just taking him some time to catch up."

They finished the essay portions of their applications at the library and were ready to mail by the time it was closing.

"I guess we'll see what happens," Leah dropped her application in the mailbox.

"I guess we will," Alice agreed.


End file.
